I'll Write If You'll Listen
by Epic-Narutard-Jones
Summary: "Good morning. I apologize for the inconvenience, I thought I had a notepad with me...I'm incapable of speaking you see." Jean works at a small café to save up some extra money for college. One morning an adorable boy with freckles walks into the café. Jean falls head over heels instantly, and after finding out Marco can not speak he's even more interested. Jean x Marco. Complete
1. One: The Beginning

_Hello everybody, I said on Christmas that I was going to start uploading on here more often. So here I am uploading! So this is a modern day AU in which Jean is a 20 year old who works in a small café over the summer to save up some extra money for college. Marco on the other hand is a 21 year old who is not able to speak. He's just moved to Trost and by chance walks into the café were Jean works._

_Anyway that`s all the needed background for the story. I believe this is going to be a one shot, though I wouldn't mind turning into a series if that`s what the readers would like. It's rated 'T' right now mostly for strong language. That's enough of of me rambling though, on with the story._

_As always I don't own any of the characters or places used in the story. I just own the writing._

_Oh and also, I'm unsure if anyone has ever made an AU like this, so if I just copied your AU idea tell me, please. I swear this just popped into my head at like eleven O'clock last night and I didn't intentionally steal your idea so please don't get mad at me, just tell me so I know and I'll make it up to you somehow._

_Enjoy._

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><p><strong>One: The Beginning.<strong>

When Jean Kirstein was twenty years old he had a summer job in a little café in downtown Trost. It wasn't a bad job, he shared most of his shifts with two girls. Ymir, a tall freckled girl with skin the colour of toffee, who's girlfriend often stopped by for some kind of sweet, and Annie a short blonde girl with crystal blue eyes and a temper that should be feared by everyone. Jean often worked longer than both of the girls, only because he needed the extra money, and even though they never said it he knew that Ymir and Annie were thankful for it.

Jean was about average height for his age with amber eyes that had been described as 'piercing' on more than one occasion. His hair was very light brown on the top of his head and got darker underneath. He wore glasses with wide rims around the outside when reading or studying or when his contacts chose to scorch his eyes straight out of his head. He was attractive in a kind of...dorky way.

But that's not were our story starts. Our story starts on a Wednesday morning. Exciting right? A bright sun lightly peaked out from behind a collection of fluffy white clouds. Being summer, it was warm. It wasn't one of those days were it's so unpleasantly hot that you can't find peace anywhere, not even in front of a fan. It was just the right temperature. Jean had come into work right on time. Annie was already there cleaning up tables and waiting on the few people who were already in the café. Ymir probably wouldn't show for at least another half hour. Jean sighed quietly, nodding at Annie as he made his way to the kitchen. He slipped his messenger bag off his shoulder and put his waiter apron and name tag on over his black T-shirt with a My Chemical Romance logo on it.

As Jean assumed, about a half an our later Ymir found her way into the small restaurant with her dainty blonde girlfriend Christa following closely behind her. " Kirstein," the taller female smirked, "you're here early."

"I was here on time actually," Jean replied back a bit coldly. "you're late...no surprise really."

"Johnny boy, I'm actually hurt." Ymir lifted a hand to her heart dramatically. "I had a late night, like I was waking up at the crack of dawn to come here and wait on a bunch of bitchy high school girls." Christa noticeably blushed slightly when Ymir mentioned her late night. Jean raised an eyebrow.

"Number one: Don't call me that. Number two: your sex life isn't a real reason to be late." Jean stood. "You take the cash register for an hour."

"Whatever you say," Ymir smiled at Christa booping her nose lightly and kissing her cheek. "See you later _my_ goddess."

"Bye Ymir," The couple shared a loving peck on the lips before Christa turned on her black converse and made her way out of the café. It was only a matter of seconds later when Jean heard a small chiming, letting him know a new person just walked in. He looked up only to blush furiously and look back down again. The man who was now looking around was a nearly a head taller than him. He had a squared off jaw, dark hair with a middle part that looked slightly messy. His dark hair was matched with a pair of large dark brown eyes. The kind of eyes that are impossible to say no to. His cheeks were covered in freckles and all Jean could think about was how much he wanted to just shower that face with kisses. He moved towards Annie and nudged her. "Don't even think about waiting on the one with the freckles, he's mine."

Annie raised an eyebrow as if to ask why she should care, "If you're going all love sick puppy on me I swear to god I'll beat the shit out of you out back." she said sharply moving herself towards the kitchen. Jean heaved out a sigh, slightly flicking his light bangs away from his eyes which were now set on the boy with the freckles. He made his move, pulling out his note pad and mentally telling himself not to fuck this up. "Hello, I'm Jean. Could I take your order please?"

The man with the freckles looked up, smiling and opening his mouth. His brow furrowed and he closed his mouth. His hands raised slightly and he began to scramble around trying to find something. Jean raised a questioning eyebrow as the man pulled out his phone. 'Is this fucking assbag texting someone?' Jean asked himself. His eyes widened as the phone was passed over to him.

**Good morning. I apologize for the inconvenience, I thought I had a notepad with me...I'm incapable of speaking you see and I doubt you know sign language. Anyway Could I just have a cup of tea with lots of sugar please?**

Jean smiled thoughtfully at the note that had been typed for him. He didn't care if the man in front of him couldn't speak, he seemed really sweet and was really adorable, Jean just had to get his number. Sucking in a breath, he smiled, "no need to apologize. I'll get that for you in a moment," before Jean handed the phone back he typed a quick message.

**Could I by any chance get your number? - Jean**

He didn't look back to see the expression on the freckled boys face but he could assume that an adorable blush was involved.

Stepping into the kitchen, Jean told Ymir to put on some tea, which she did.

"So did'ya hit it off with that guy Jean?" Ymir asked winking at him.

"What the fuck Ymir?"

"Do you hear that Jean?" she moved next to him, wrapping her slender arm around his shoulder. "Beep...beep...be- oh J-Jean I think that's my gaydar going off...hear it? Bee-"

"Shut up Ymir. I asked for his number...big woop."

"Ohhh, what's his number. You gonna call right now lover boy?"

"If you can make that tea boil any faster, I might be able to get his number." Jean spoke at the right time because just then the kettle screeched at the top of it's nonexistent lungs.

"Ohh...there goes the kettle Jean." Ymir spoke as if her words were laced with poison

"Shut the fuck up." Jean spat grabbing the kettle and semi-angrily made the freckled boys tea, adding in what could only be described as a 'shit-ton' of sugar.

Ymir watched with a shit eating grin as Jean brought the man his tea. He was handed a phone and Ymir saw his blush appear, she could also tell when he spoke he stuttered. The phone was passed back and forth a few times before Jean pointed in the direction of the kitchen and smiled. The boy nodded and beamed back. Jean smiled again and moved towards Ymir mouthing something along the lines of _'I got his number, stop smiling shit wad.'_ to which she mouthed back _'my Johnny boy is in love how could I stop.'_ Jean flipped her off and Annie coughed muttering an angered 'get back to work.'

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><p><em>The mans name was Marco, and it was from this day onwards that he was the one thing on Jean's mind. Was this love? Or just a stupid infatuation? He didn't care, he wanted to be with Marco and that was all.<em>

_Jean also just couldn't shake the feeling that he'd seen him somewhere before._


	2. Two: Marco

_Hey eveyone! I'd just like to thank you guys for following and favoriting this story. Also a big thank you goes out to my first reviewer. I think that enough people read this to make this into a story. I think I want this story to be around twenty chapters and an epilogue. What do you guys think? I've got a plot planned out and everything and I think it would fit nicely into twenty-one chapters._

_As for updates if this whole multi-chaptered fanfiction goes well I think I'm going to update on weekends. This could be anywhere from Friday night to Sunday night. I don't really want a set day because I hate deadlines! I hope that's okay._

_And one last thing before the disclaimer and then the story, eventual smut or no? I have to ask before I get too far into the story. I'm with putting it in if it fits anywhere, I just want to know if you as a reader would be okay with that._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or places mentioned or used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_P.S I think I'm going to write the rest of the story from Jean POV it just seems right to me. The Epilogue like the first chapter though I think will be third person. Also I hope this chapter isn't too short._

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Marco<strong>

_'Marco. That name. Marco. The one with the freckles. Marco...the love of my life. What...wait...love of my? I just met him. But he's cute and I have his number. But I just met him! We should get married...You just fucking met him! Pull it together man, you don't even know anything about him! But freckles!' _

During that Wednesday my thoughts were something along the lines of this. It's pitiful falling for a guy that by chance walked into a café for a drink, I knew that, but still I couldn't help it. As soon as Marco stepped into that restaurant, he also stepped his way into my heart and mind, where he proceeded to stay.

I had never believed in that bullshit thing called love at first sight, even after meeting Marco I still didn't, though upon seeing the adorable man walking into the café I had a want... no a need to protect him from any danger that could possibly befall him. Not to mention those big brown doe eyes that watched me so attentively were now permanently etched into my memory, when I thought about them though, I couldn't quite shake the feeling the I'd seen the before

"Kirschtein, can you stop daydreaming for five seconds and give me and Annie a fucking hand with all these customers?" Ymir hissed, scrunching up her nose as she did so.

"That's rich coming from the woman who works less in a week than I do in a day." I quipped under my breath, hoisting myself up from the stool I'd previously been sitting on. "How can I help you, your highness?" My amber eyes got caught in a heated gaze with her chocolate brown ones.

"Your highness. Kinky Jean. Do you want me to call you daddy?" Our heated gaze stopped for half a second when Ymir squinted, licking her lips.

"God Ymir, keep your fetishes to yourself or better yet test them out on Christa."

Ymir opened her mouth slightly, only to snap it shut and glare at me as Annie walked past. "Stop discussing your sex lives at work, you don't hear me talking about mikasa's kinks twenty-four seven" she murmured looking all kinds of pissed off at us. Ymir and I both cocked questioning eyebrows.

"Mikasa Ackerman...?" We queried in astonishment.

"But you two..." I trailed off quietly.

"Hate each other." Ymir picked back up for me.

"Mmmhmm...and now we're fucking on Tuesdays. Things've changed since high school." Annie looked up at the two of us with her crystal eyes blazing, "now do you see these people in the café? Get off your asses and serve them."

My work day from then on wasn't memorable. Ymir's 'gaydar' kept going off around me and she kept asking about Marco. Annie didn't speak much, no surprise there though. When eight O'clock slowly rolled it's self around, I found myself alone in the café. I'd shed off my waiters attire since I was alone now. Ymir had left at seven, whereas Annie had only left fifteen minutes ago. I sighed loudly glancing down at my phone. I thought once again about the freckled angel that walked into my life and then nervously dropped him a text.

**Guess Who?**

To which he replied back with**: You gave me your number at the café doofus I know who you are. Jean, right?**

**I was trying to be sexy and mysterious. Did it work?**

**Sure it did, you dork.**

I sucked in a nervous breath and then asked him (via text...lame I know) if he was free tonight, since it was barely eight fifteen. When he said he was I threw myself in head first and asked if he'd swing by the café, it was closed so it would just be the two of us. He replied with **'I like my tea with a lot of sugar, I'll be there soon.' **

Perfect. I locked my phone and started turning everything in the café back on. I was about halfway through making Marco's cup of tea when my nerves set in and I started getting jittery. '_Oh god it's just the two of us in here. Holy fuck. I'm going to fuck this up.' _A loud knocking on the front door interrupted all of my thoughts and successfully caused me to pour scalding water all over myself. "Fucking...-," holding back a string of curses I when and opened the café's front door.

"Hi uhmm... Make yourself at home." Fuck this isn't even my house what am I saying? "Fuck...Jesus Christ... I-I burnt myself making your tea, could you give me a second." Trying my hardest to give a weak smile I moved towards the nearest sink and started running the cool water, Marco awkwardly followed after me grabbing some paper towel as he did so. I shrieked loudly when I finally built up the courage to put my arm under the water. "I'm never making tea again." I joked weakly. Marco gave me a knowing smile and took the paper towel he'd grabbed, pressing it lightly to my wound.

"You seem to know what your doing, don't you?"

He shrugged to this and gave me a cute little smile. I melted slightly under his gaze, "this must be the shittiest date you've ever had huh?" My eyes widened when I called this a date. Did he even think this was a date? He gave me a sideways gaze and shook his head, a smile was still present on his face. We stared at each other for a while, maybe too long? I don't really know. Marco lightly stopped applying pressure to the thoroughly soaked paper towel on my arm. He dried his hands off on his pants before whipping out his phone and typing me a message.

**This isn't the worst date I've been on, this was actually kind of cute.**

I blushed. I tried really hard not to, but I did. "W-well...I'm glad to hear that," I stopped the running water and pulled my arm out of the sink.

**You blushed.**

"Oh my god, looks like I'm going out on a date with captain obvious," I cast my gaze downwards, crimson flushing over my cheeks and at the tips of my ears, "do you want to sit or something? I can re-make you some tea or whatever." He shook his head in a 'don't bother' kind of way.

I nodded. "Okay then," throwing myself down into the nearest seat sighing heavily. He sat across from me letting the most adorable giggle slip past his lips. I made a mental note to make him do this more. "So, why don't you tell me a little bit about how you fell from heaven."

**Oh my god you didn't just. **Marco blushed and put his head in his hands

"Yeah I think I did just. But my pickup lines aside I do want to know more about you."

**Fine.** I waited patiently while Marco quietly typed out his history, or at least that which he felt like sharing to me.

**My name is Marco Bodt. I'm twenty one. I just moved to Trost to study art. I never really knew my mother, due to the fact she died in a car crash when I was one, which was also when I lost my voice permanently. So, yes I've never really known how to speak. I've lived with my father the rest of my life. We've always gotten along really well and we still do to this day. I like my tea with lots of sugar, but you knew that. Now Jean I need to know more about you.**

"Well uhmm...me? My name's Jean Kirschtein. I have a bad temper. I need money that's why I work here. I haven't spoken to my parents since I came out two years ago, whatever. I'm a dork, I blush a lot and I've always tried to not be different in this world."

**Different?**

"Well I don't know I don't like being different. You mean to tell me you don't care that you're different?"

**No, I've come to exept it Jean, and you should too. **

"I'll try...uhmm, can I change the topic?"

And that's how it started, he and I sat together in that god damn café talking about everything. At the end of the night after we'd drained his phone battery down we parted ways. We promised to do this again tomorrow and I'd finally get him his tea with a shit-ton of sugar then.

Sleep that night never came to me, I was to busy acting like a high school girl with a crush on her best friend. I had fallen for Marco Bodt hard and fast. Falling for Marco...falling forever.

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><p>In a roomy apartment Marco sat smiling brightly the painting he'd whipped up in a matter of hours of a tawny haired man with amber eyes. He'd called the painting 'the soldier who was different'. Jean. His eyes observed the painting for a while. It was definitely his best piece.<p>

Marco Bodt was interested in Jean Kirschtein. He was starting his slow fall, he couldn't fall forever like Jean though, because they'd have to meet at some point.


	3. Three: Dancing and Kisses

_Chapter three guys. Here it goes. I thought this might be cute since this is kind of a filler chapter. Also I really wanted to write about Jean while he's wearing his glasses._

_Haha so updates are supposed to be once a weekend but I couldn't sleep last night after finishing Wisteria (great story, you should all read it) , so I wrote the whole chapter. I'm also kind of a little kid and I got super excited when I saw even more people following and favoriting my story so I was like 'I need to give them more' so uhmm here it is. The next update won't be until probably Saturday._

_So I'd once again like to thank you for your continued support of this story like seriously I'm honored that you guys would even want to read this, thank you! Also I think even though this is a filler chapter it's the longest._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any characters or places used in this story. I just own the writing . I don't own the song "Road to You" either._

_Enjoy._

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><p><strong>Three: Dancing and Kisses<strong>

After my sleepless night I'd seen Marco quite a lot, almost everyday actually. He'd stop by the café for his tea with a shit-ton of sugar in it or we'd go out and see a film. It didn't matter what we did per say, we just liked being together.

It'd been about two weeks since then. I'd learned a fair bit about Marco. Mostly just little things, I know he only blushes when I use my stupid pick up lines. He doesn't swear, but he apparently thinks it's cute when I do it. His handwriting is small, cramped and often in all caps. He's a lefty but when he signs his right hand is more dominant. But I did learn some big things about him too. I know he doesn't let his disability control him. He'd been teased a lot in his life but has tough skin. Marco without a doubt was one of the most complex and perfect humans I've had the pleasure of meeting.

On that Wednesday (two weeks after meeting Marco) when I woke up I knew everything would suck. After my clock went off half an hour early and my contacts wouldn't go into my god damn eyes , I knew that day would be torture. Everything that could have went wrong went wrong. Christa was sick so Ymir had to stay home to take care of her 'goddess'. Annie worked for two hours before gathering her stuff up and leaving, mentioning something about a day out with Mikasa. Every bratty child in Trost showed up at the café and one even threw up on the floor. Lucky me, I was now a janitor too. I vowed in that moment, mopping up the contents of a child's stomach that I'd never have kids of my own.

Even when Marco showed up my mood didn't lighten much. When he walked through the door causing a small bell to jingle, I pushed my thick rimmed glasses up my nose and gave him the best smile I could, which honestly looked more like a small facial seizure. He smiled back and took a seat close to the cash register. I went up to his table, whipping my note pad out though I really didn't need it. Tea. Lots of sugar. A shit-ton of sugar. "Tea with a shit-ton of sugar?"

**You know me too well glasses.**

"I know I do freckles."

**Hey you seemed stressed. What's up?**

"Bad day baby, they happen sometimes." In our two weeks together I'd compiled a list of about one million terms of endearment to call Marco.

**You wanna talk about it?**

"I'm a bit busy right now," to prove my point a woman on the other side of the café started to complain very loudly about how slow everything was. "I'm one fucking guy," I muttered under my breath. I turned, telling Marco I'd be back and started working double time to get everyone what they wanted when they wanted it. I'd swing by his table every so often to tell him something sweet or how beautiful he was. He'd thank me by signing or at least that's what I thought he was doing.

Marco stayed all day. Slowly sipping his sweetened tea, reading some novel a majority of the time. I could tell he was worried about me by the way he'd look up at me after turning every page or when ever he took a sip of his tea.

I closed the café a good two hours early, then slumped into the seat across from Marco. He pulled out a notebook and wrote.

**You wanna talk about it now?**

"There's not much to say baby. Today just sucked. I woke up too early, had to wear my glasses, dealt with bitchy customers all day and cleaned up after too many children. Do I even need to mention the lack of Ymir and Annie?"

**Let's dance then.**

"I think that's the last thing I want to do right now."

**It'll relieve your stress I promise it will.**

I groaned, digging in my pocket and pulling out my phone. "You're lucky I fucking love you baby. I wouldn't do this for anyone but you. Pick a song." I unlocked it and passed it to Marco. He stalked through my music before picking a song he liked. The first notes of 'Road to You' began to play, he shrugged and got up grabbing my hands. We held each others hands tightly and we danced. No stupid shuffling from foot to foot awkwardly like middle schoolers at a dance. We moved to the beat slowly our movements matching perfectly.

'_I was born a fool on the run. I've broken hearts and lost at love. There's not one thing I would change or undo. 'Cause all my life's been a road to you.'_

Marco did that adorable thing where a small giggle bubbles past his lips. I smirked and tried to keep my blush at bay. He smiled back at me and I found myself concentrating on his lips. Those lips. Perfectly shaped. Perfect shade. The last notes of the song played and I did something stupidly bold I leaned in and brushed my lips softly across his. His hands moved from mine to around the back of my neck, deepening the kiss instantly. Stupidly bold. I blushed from the tips of my ears down to somewhere around my collarbone. Marco seemed to have no intentions of ending the kiss and neither did I, until Ymir, that bitch with her keys to the goddamn café burst in.

"Jean, you here? I came into work for an hour Christa's aslee-...Ohmygod." Ymir stiffly walked out of the door she'd just came in, letting it swing closed and not bothering to lock it.

I awkwardly broke off the kiss and gave a nervous laugh, "Ymir just walked in on me almost making out with my boyfriend, well this is special." I could tell from the heat on my cheeks that my entire face was crimson. Marco shrugged slightly grabbing his notebook and writing: **Regardless I enjoyed myself.**

"Oh I'm not saying I didn't enjoy that baby," I made grabby hands at him as I sat on the edge of a table. He moved himself closer and I pulled him forward by his waist. He let out a quiet yelp. "Where'd you learn to dance?" I questioned, he merely shrugged at me scribbling down a messy reply.

**You were leading me through most of it.**

"Maybe I did, but I sure as hell didn't lead you in that kiss."

Marco shrugged again. **There's other uses for ones mouth than talking Jean. You'll find I'm quite talented with my mouth.**

The blush on my cheeks that had faded just seconds ago was now returning, "did you just make a sexual innuendo at me Marco?"

Innocent eyes turned towards me. **Oh my god Jean I'm a grown man, I can make innuendos too you know.**

"You've got a valid point there." I kissed the tip of his nose gently. I started to hum quietly the tune to 'road to you' and I started doing what I've wanted to do for a while now, I kissed every single one of the freckles on Marco's face singing to myself as I did so.

'_I was born a fool on the run. I've broken hearts and lost at love. There's not one thing I would change or undo. 'Cause all my life's been a road to you.'_

When I was finished I pulled away from him. He smiled up at me.** I never took you as a hopeless romantic Jean Kirschtein. **

"It's your fault not mine baby. You're just breath taking, you know that."

**I've been told.**

"That's where you say thank you and that I'm a sexy and not to mention good boyfriend."

**Yeah right that too.**

"Thanks a lot you big jerk."

**You're welcome dork.**

"I love you, you know that Marco."

**I've guessed that also. But I love you too Jean. **

We shared another kiss, just like the first one. Just the two of us. I was holding onto Marco's hips. One of his hands was at my chest clutching his notebook tightly. The other was resting gently on my cheek, cupping it and playing with the side of my glasses. This was what happiness must feel like, to think I'd never known how amazing ones life can be when a man like Marco walks into it. My lips curved upwards into a smile. We broke apart and just looked at each other. I swore to any god that was out there I was going to spend the rest of my life with this man. I wanted a big house with him after college. I wanted a huge wedding with a cake fight and everything. I want to grow older with him, this beautiful freckled angel. I have to admit I was being really cliché whenever I thought about him but god damn cliché thoughts aside, I was still falling hard and fast,every time I saw him.

"Do you want me to walk you home baby, no point in staying around here. I doubt Ymir's ever coming back now."

Again Marco giggled and I fucking melted. He nodded, yes. I had yet to actually find out were Marco lived so he'd have to lead the way but I'd do anything to stay with him longer. And so we started a hand in hand walk into the summer night.

Long story short, I was in a better mood now all it took was dancing and a couple kisses.


	4. Four: An Artist

_H__ey __everyone! Chapter four, we're trucking right along! So I know it's not the weekend, but I wanted to upload today so...yay? Also before I go on with my author's note I'd like to throw a big thank you out to my followers and reviewers. All you guys make me so happy! So have some internet hugs and cookies from me!_

_So I don't know where the inspiration for this chapter came from, I just kind of thought of Marco's painting at the end of chapter two and thought I might as well bring it back, plus Jean being all flustered would be so adorable. Also Marco and flowers, man, Wisteria's rubbing off on me! That's all I'm going to say, no spoilers. Heh. Also I think this is an appropriate time to say that thanks to Riverspirit86's input there will indeed be eventual smut, I'm just guessing right now but it will probably be in chapter 8ish it really depends how much relationship development I can put in the upcoming chapters, I really don't want them to do the frick frack right after only a month, it just doesn't fit their personalities in the story. And also another point coming off of that, Marco is most likely going to be topping, so if you're a Jean topping type person, I'm sorry for the first time it's going to be Marco. But that doesn't mean that Jean won't possibly top later in the story. Okay, okay ramble over, story now._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or places used, I just own the writing._

_Enjoy!_

_P.S. Don't kill me for using the term 'tonsil hockey'_

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><p><strong>Four: An Artist<strong>

August is the month where every student realizes the amount of time and days they wasted doing nothing and try to make up for it. I'm really no exception to this usually, but oddly this year my first summer vacation month was, for the most part that is, fairly productive. I'd kept my job all that month. I'd gotten myself a sweet boyfriend who unbeknownst to him inspired me to take up sign language on Thursday nights. Also I'd saved up a fair bit of money for college in the fall.

So when my fridge's calendar flipped from July to August I didn't feel the distant twinge of regret that I usually did, no I felt like for once in my life I'd truly accomplished something over the month of July. Not to mention that I also felt excitement knowing my freckled angel and I had successfully been together for a whole month. One month in the grand scheme of things wasn't much. But you have to start with months to get to years, right? Sometimes you regret even bothering with letting something go on that long, I knew I definitely regretted letting that happen once or twice in my life (not to name any names but I regretted letting myself go on that long with Eren Yeager), but with Marco deep down somewhere I just knew stupid months turning into to grand years would be just right and it was what I needed.

On the seventh of August, the day of our one month anniversary, when Marco walked into the café causing the bells connected to the door to jingle loudly as they always did, he was carrying a large canvas behind him. I'd already known that Marco was an art student. I mean when I went to his apartment for the first time after walking him home, I'd been greeted by every art supply imaginable and had spent over an hour just going through his sketch pads. I just didn't understand why he'd bother lugging a painting from there to here. When we locked eyes I cocked a brow and he shrugged, which was a very Marco-esque answer. He began shuffling towards to me, the painting following suit.

Ymir who'd previously been flirting with Christa across the cash register looked up at Marco, "freckles if you need a naked model, Jean's your guy. He might look like a wonky pencil but I bet underneath those big sweaters and band shirts he's got some muscle." she winked and I nearly bit my tongue off trying not to pounce her and beat her up then and there. Marco let out a sigh that asked _'what are we going to do with her' _before turning to look at me and letting the smallest look of pleasure grace his lips. I grinned back at him not even trying to stop the flush on my cheeks. I opened my mouth to say something romantic and slightly stupid about our anniversary. Nothing came out because Marco passed me a pre-written note.

**Happy one month anniversary Jean.**

**After our first date, it was a date right? The time you burnt yourself? Anyways after that I went back to my apartment and well long story short, I painted. When you and I talked about being different it got me thinking, but that's another tale for another time. The painting I'm about to give you was originally titled 'Jean Kirschtein' but I thought into it some more and now it's called 'The Soldier Who Was Different'. Which fits it better and I hope you think it does too, Jean. The soldier part comes from how brave I know you are. You probably don't even realize it yet Jean but you're a born leader. The last part I believe, is self explanatory, or at least it should be. Jean you're different and it's nothing to be ashamed of. Our first night in this café you said you're always trying to fit in in this world but you don't need to change for anything. If the world wants to mold you into something you're not, don't let it, fight back my soldier because you know I love you.**

**Also I hope you have free wall space for this, it's kinda large.**

**-Marco Bodt xoxo.**

I bit my lip, blinking rapidly. My cheeks slowly flushed as I finished reading his note. I set it down and stared at him. His brown doe eyes shone in the light of the café. "Marco...I don't even...-you're too good for me." I gestured towards the painting and then towards him. He smiled slightly taking my left hand into his right and scribbling a reply on the back of the note. **Trust me I'm not. Now, Jean, do you want to see your present?**

I nodded vigorously, just like a child who'd been offered ice cream. Marco leant down, pulling the masterpiece up to my eye level and not at all dramatically hauling an old sheet off it. I sucked in an amazed breath as my eyes watered ever so slightly. It was beautiful. A collection of colours were neatly put together to depict me. I wasn't facing the onlookers of the painting, though my head was turned just enough to see the side of my face. A green cape that I had held around my shoulders showed a symbol that to the best of my knowledge had never been used before in the military, it had two wings on it, one side blue and the other white. Marco's initials were written lightly in the corner in black paint with a small heart after them.

"Holy fucking shit Marco, I don't even know what to say. Thank you...so much, I-I love it," I wiped my eyes with my bawled up hands, much like a little kid would. "I love you." I whispered pitifully, and made the 'grabby hands' towards him which had kind of become my way of wordlessly telling him to come towards me because I wanted to hug or kiss him. When he came into my outstretched arms I hugged him tightly and whispered into his ear, "you're a big jerk Marco, making me cry like a little bitch." I kissed the tip of his nose lightly, causing him to smile adorably.

"I have something for you too," I murmured none too pleased. "It's kinda lame compared to your gift though." Unraveling my arms from his shoulders I went to go dig in my messengers bag, pulling out a large bouquet of flowers. Marco's eyes shone a bit more than usual upon seeing them.

"You told me a while back that you loved flowers and roses are romantic... so I dropped by the florist down the road and picked these up." I gripped the flower's stems tightly enough to turn my knuckles white as I held them at arm's length in front of him. Gingerly, he took the bouquet from me, running his fingers across the soft petals of one of the roses. He pulled me into another embrace. His arms were wrapped fully around my neck, mine were resting on his waist lightly. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought that I was happy about the lack of peoplein the café, last thing I need was a bunch of old church ladies throwing homophobic slurs at me. He let go of me reluctantly and smiled, casting his gaze back downwards to look at his flowers.

Marco was probably one of the first men I'd met who got that excited over flowers. It made me happy to know how pleased he could be with so little. I leaned forward and captured his lips with mine.

"I'm glad you liked your present baby," I whispered gently against his lips, "how'd you like to spend the night at my place?"

**To help you to put up a painting? Or do you just want my company?** He typed and passed his phone over after detaching himself from me.

"Both, I think."

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><p>As per usual, I closed the café at eight and made my way home with Marco by my side. We walked hand in hand which in hindsight sight wasn't the smartest thing to do since I was carrying a large piece of canvas at my side. When we made it to my apartment, we started to put the painting up on my wall. I'm not going to go into great detail with how we put it up but it entailed, lot's of cursing on my part and Marco running back and forth to the bathroom for bandages numerous times. It took an hour or so to finally get it up on the wall.<p>

"There, it's up." I said, tilting my head to the side much like a cat would to marvel at the painting for a moment. My eyes caught sight of Marco's roses resting on the table. I gestured towards them, "how about we get those babies some water and then call it a night?"

Marco agreed, so I set out to look for something that could hold the flowers. I eventually settled on using a mason jar, setting them in after adding some cold water. The thought of my bed and Marco sounded really good by now. I grabbed his hand, steering him down the hallway into my room. Going through to my dresser and tossing a pair of sweats at Marco, I murmured, "there's an extra toothbrush under the sink." He disappeared into the room across the hall as I got changed into my own sleepwear. Checkered boxers and an old shirt from high school that said '_loading sarcasm'_. When Marco returned into my room he wore my pants but nothing on his upper half, he had the toothbrush from under the sink hanging out his mouth. My eyes widened, my jaw dropped and I blushed so hard I swear it hurt all in less than a millisecond. He knit his eyebrows together in a questioning look, to which I just shook my head.

"Jesus Marco...you're really hot." I blinked a few times. His chest, shoulders and arms were covered in freckles and I had to stop myself from wondering how many he might have underneath my sweat pants. He smiled at me around the toothbrush, which caused some white toothpaste to leak out the sides of his mouth. I laughed and he shuffled back to the bathroom to spit. When he once again reappeared in my doorway I told him to get comfortable and went to brush my own teeth.

After making sure my mouth had been thoroughly cleaned, I moved back to my bedroom and threw myself on top the plush bed, dragging Marco down ontop of me. I kissed him once gently on the lips, holding him with my arms wrapped around his lower back. My eyes slowly swept over his neck. Next thing I knew I was trailing slow open mouthed kisses along it. He noticeably filched as I reached some of his sensitive points but showed no other signs of discomfort. Painfully slowly I kissed up his throat and over his jawline to his lips. Messy open mouthed kisses followed from then on. Marco would bite my lower lip lightly every so often.

"M-Marco." I breathed quietly. He took this as an opportunity to forcefully shove his tongue into my mouth. I flushed from the tips of my ears down to my toes before I could get up the courage to do the same to him. Marco was letting quiet moans and cries escape past his lips. I honestly couldn't stop myself from doing the same.

I don't know if you've ever heavily made out with someone, but it's hard to breathe when you do so. So after a fair amount of tonsil hockey we pulled away from each other. I was beyond crimson when we did, Marco too had a fair amount of blush spread over his freckled cheeks.

"Would now be an okay time to say that I love you?"

Marco held up a slender finger and scrambled around for a second or two to find his phone.

**Why? Were you going to?**

"Answer the question."

**Well it's not like you haven't said it before. But yeah, Jean it's as fine a time as any to say it.**

"I love you so much Marco, happy anniversary."

**I love you too Jean. Happy anniversary.**

I opened my mouth to speak but Marco's eyelids were slowly drooping. "Tuckered yourself out, huh? Goodnight baby."

Marco slept peacefully curled up at my side but I stayed awake for a long while after that. It was one of those nights were sleep wouldn't take me because I was too busy thinking about every life choice I'd ever made. My mind wandered here and there, I remembered my time with Eren and how I'd fucked that relationship up so badly. I thought about my parents kicking me out. I thought about the few friends that had always stuck with me, Ymir with her teasing being one of them. Then I thought about Marco, my angel. Maybe, just maybe I was beginning to see the brave soldier I might very well be. If Marco thought I was brave, I'd be brave for him. All I knew was that I wasn't going to mess this up. I loved him far to much.

I glanced at the clock realizing I had been contemplating everything so long that it was already two in the morning. I also realized how tired I really was, so I closed my eyes and let a rough dreamless sleep take me.


	5. Five: Eren Jaeger

_F__ifth __chapter is a go! So hey guys, it's been a while since Wednesday huh? Well...no not really but whatever right?_

_Okay, so I brought Eren into the story just for a little tension with him and Jean and also to clear up some things about what they had going on at one point. So yeah this chapter might not so much be about Marco/Jean fluff this is going more into stuff about Jean and Eren. But I promise this isn't 100% Jean/Eren fighting, there will be a little fluff in there too. _

_So that's all I have to say this time around other than I really want to write smut for these two soon._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_P.S.- I already have most of this story planned out, but you all know I'm open to your suggestions. I'm always willing to put your ideas into my work. I also thought this might be a good time to mention that I really regret having Jean using the the pet name 'baby' for Marco because I hate it so much, haha no point in stopping that now. _

_P.P.S.- Canadian Levi...! Also I'd like to apologize for this chapter, it's kind of rushed because I'm working on a deadline and like I've said before I suck with deadlines. It's also kind of short. So yeah, sorry about this chapter if it's not what you wanted/were expecting. Chapter six will make up for this one._

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><p><strong>Five: Eren Jaeger<strong>

It was either late morning or early afternoon when soft fingertips running themselves over my face awoke me from my sleep. A deep yawn tore it's way through my throat as I stretched as best as I could without hitting my current bed partner, said partner was watching me with ever so curious eyes. His lips turned upwards on one side in a lopsided smirk. I gave him the sweetest look I could muster at this point in time. Slowly I turned my head to check on what time it was. Doing this promptly caused me to fall off my bed in a tangle of sheets. I was over an hour late for work! Sighing loudly, I brought myself into a sitting position where I was greeted by the fingers that woke me up slowly running through my thin strands of tawny hair. My gaze slowly crept up his arm and over his freckled shoulder. When we locked eyes my heart skipped it's usual beat.

"Good morning, beautiful," I croaked, moving to adjust myself more comfortably on the floor. "How's the weather up there?"

Marco with his phone in the hand that wasn't currently playing with my hair wrote: **Pleasant. Can we cuddle? You're late for work now anyway.**

Before I could even begin to form a reply in my head my phone started loudly playing Fall Out Boy's Dance Dance, which was it's way of telling me I was receiving a call that I most likely didn't even want.

"Fuck. Gimme a sec Marco." Grabbing around semi-blindly I found the source of the music and answered the call with out looking who was contacting me.

"You're late," it was Ymir talking on the other end of the phone.

"And you're early, that's a first." Sarcasm laced every word that I spoke.

"Had to be. Annie's sick,"

"Oh, she's such a bitch, getting sick." I mocked lisping on most of my words.

"Totally a bitch," she mocked right back. "All jokes aside though Jean, are you coming to work today?"

Sighing through my nose I replied, "yeah, I am. Give me an hour or so, I had a late night and forgot to set an alarm."

"Marco's with you hmmm?"

"Yes he is. I know what you're thinking and we didn't, so shut up you bitch."

A loud laugh could be heard on the other end of the phone, "lie all you want man. Whatever gets you to sleep at night." She gasped out sarcastically. "Oh, Jean...?" All of a sudden Ymir's voice had gotten noticeably serious.

"What Mir? You 'kay?"

"I mentioned that Annie's sick right? We have someone down here covering her shift..." She trailed off quietly and my stomach dropped.

"Who?"

"Jean, you're not going to-"

"Who?" I practically screamed it this time.

"Eren Jaeger is the one who's covering Annie's shift..."

"Are you bullshitting me Ymir."

"Jean, I know what happened with you and Eren and I wouldn't BS you on this one. He's really working Annie's shifts. He's probably as broke as you and needs the extra money."

"Yeah," I tried to swallow down the lump that was forming in my throat. "Thanks for the heads up...Oh and Ymir, don't beat the shit out of him if he pisses you off unless I'm right next to you." I really hoped that my joke sounded more confident to her than it did to me.

She laughed, "I wouldn't dare Jean."

With those last words we broke off our communication. Marco who'd been observing me closely throughout my exchange with Ymir held up his phone with one word written on it. **Cuddle?**

"Fifteen minutes sound okay? Then I get ready for work."

**Fifteen minute cuddle sounds great.**

I eagerly lifted myself off the floor and extended my arms towards Marco. Gently, I let myself fall on top of him, pulling his slightly larger frame against we rolled around on the bed a little before giving in and finding a comfortable cuddling position. My face was pressed against his chest where I could faintly hear his heartbeat. His chin was resting softly atop my head. He hummed in content and snuggled me closer. I liked being this close to Marco. It made me feel safe and more importantly it made me feel wanted. I sighed, though for the first time on this particular morning it was a sigh of happiness. And we stayed like . It was warm and safe here. Of course I had no intentions of stopping any time soon, neither did he, but time is a bitch and it won't stop marching forward, not even for us. Fifteen minutes that felt more like fifteen seconds passed in the blink of an eye. We broke apart from each other. Marco told me he needed to get back to his place but would drop by the café, kissed me and then went off to his own apartment.

Exhaling a breath loudly I set out to start doing my morning activities. Showering, teeth brushing, breakfast making, the usual. I made it to work within the hour, Starbucks in hand and a scowl apparent on my face.

"Oh look! If it isn't good ol' horse face." Eren fucking Yeager was the first thing I heard walking into the café, the nerve of that shit. I opened my mouth to swear at the top of my lungs at him, but instead Ymir threw in her two cents by hissing out, "Yeager, grow a pair and shut the hell up. If you don't I swear to god I will punt your sorry ass all the way back to your fuck buddy with the lisp."

"Not a fuck buddy Ymir, a boyfriend," those fucking turquoise-jade eyes slid towards me and a smirk pushed itself up his lips. "But he's got a great ass. Dare I say it better than yours Jean. He's into that whole punk style so leather pants show it off nicely."

"Let me guess, he's a Canadian too? You know, Canada, the place of fake boyfriends."

"Actually, he is. His name is Levi and he's more than slightly real," Eren smirked at me, hooking a finger under his shirt and pulling in down just enough for me to make out a fading bruise on his collarbone. "More than real." he added again.

"Don't sound so proud to be a bottom, Yeager."

"Like you can say much."

"Shut the fuck up you filthy piece of shit." I knew my face was flushing, not only because this asshole of a human being was back in my life talking about fucking some Canadian, but I also just realized we were having this verbal fight in a café filled with people. Ymir stood, she looked at me with knowing eyes and then squinted towards Eren

"Look Eren, Jean's with someone too so there's no point in trying to make him jealous." Eren's eyes widened, I simply smirked viciously at him. "And Jean," she turned her chocolate eyes back on me, her angered gaze softened ever so slightly, "stop trying to get the last word with Jaeger. You're both grown up now and seeing other people. Big deal."

I honestly wish I could say Ymir's words had helped, but they didn't. Eren and I were still at each other's throats all day. He kept bringing up my goddamn parents, and all the times we fucked and did romantic assed things. He'd even touched my ass once in the kitchen, which had been my breaking point. Without even realizing what I was doing before I'd done it, I socked him in the eye. I didn't feel even slightly bad as I watched him hobble around the café with a swollen eye from then on. Talking with our fists was always something we'd done unintentionally. We just both had hot tempers and refused to work things out properly. We weren't abusive to each other or anything, we just weren't willing to talk and chose to kick or punch, really anything that meant we didn't have to speak about our problems. This was what lead to the downfall of our relationship.

Marco showed up about half way through my work day with a smile on his face. I leaned over to Eren and whispered, "the one with the freckles is mine." I walked briskly towards him, pulled him forwards and crushed our lips together. _'Suck it Jaeger, this angel is mine.' _I thought somewhere in the back of my mind. I wrapped my arms around Marco's back running my blunt nails down his spine. When I broke away from him, I squinted in Eren's direction. He raised an eyebrow at me, "Am I supposed to be impressed?" he mouthed.

"No you're not. I am permitted to kiss my boyfriend if I want to," I muttered aloud.

**Marco passed me his phone, Bad time?**

"No. It's fine, I was actually thinking about cashing in for the day and heading home."

**Why?**

"I don't know, just because. I'll go get my stuff." I moved towards the kitchen to get my belongings and Eren followed. He leaned against the counter and smiled at me.

"You seem happy."

"I am. Why would you care?"

"I don't know...it's just, I'm happy with Levi. We've been going strong even though we're kind of in a long distance relationship and he's a fair bit older than me. It's just good to see you enjoy life with someone that's not me."

"I don't understand what you're getting at..." I trailed off, pulling my messengers bag over my head and placing my hands on my hips.

"I don't know," Eren looked down, pushing himself off the counter. "What I'm trying to say is I'm happy for you even though you're my ex. You know what I mean." He held out a hand for me to shake. "I also forgive you for our break up. I know it was rough."

I batted his hand away and brought him into a hug, "Thanks," I whispered letting go of him. "I'm glad we're cool. I can come to your wedding with Levy now right?"

"It's Levi, and you so won't be invited horse-face." Eren punched me in the shoulder.

"You're such a fucking dick." with that I left the kitchen waving slightly to him as I did so. Maybe he had grown up some since I'd last seen him.

* * *

><p>I took my boyfriend's arm as I left the café. I might have messed up and said the wrong things with Eren, but that's definitely not going to happen with Marco. All I wanted in this life of mine was to spend it next to him. I wanted a large wedding with all our friends -even Eren- in the front row. I wanted a large house with an even larger art studio in it for him to work in. I wanted to have sex with him. I just wanted Marco Bodt, was it too much to ask?<p> 


	6. Six: Of dreaming and Make Outs

_H__ere it goes guys, chapter six. I really really hope this makes up for last weeks chapter. You know, little bit of almost smut and fluff yay! I regret to inform you that this is a filler chapter. I needed to put this filler in here so that chapter seven would fit with the rest of the story. The next chapter will indeed contain smut. If you're not okay with that then I apologize and I will put fair warnings before the actual sex happens. So that's about all I have to say this time around._

_**Side note: I actually wrote out Levi's lisp. Like if he said "Shut the fuck up, asshat." I actually wrote it out "Shut the fuck up, athhat." if that's annoying than I won't do it in future chapters, please give me an input. Levi won't be in the story a lot but it's still helpful to know. Also punk rock Canadian!Levi...*faints***_

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters people or places used in this story. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_P.S. This chapter is kinda pointless I admit, so if you don't like it then I'm really sorry. Next chapter will make up for this one billion percent because...smut! So please hold out until chapter seven and I promise that I'll stop making semi-pointless fillers okay?_

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><p><strong>Six: Of dreaming and Make Outs<strong>

Our lips moved rhythmically together in time with his thrusts. My blunt fingernails ran down his back leaving angered red marks in their wake. Loud moans bubbled past my lips as Marco hit a certain bundle of nerves deep inside me with every third or fourth thrust . His now swollen lips broke apart from mine, only to move down to my neck where he proceeded to leave small trails of nips and kisses. My mind hazed, nothing in this universe mattered other than Marco. I let out a choked gasp as he picked up his pace. I pulled him closer, so that our chests were flush together. Mere seconds passed before I heard an incessantly loud alarm clock beeping somewhere near my head. My eyes flew open and were greeted by...a white ceiling with slightly chipped paint...not Marco. I bit my lip and furrowed my brow. Not again. Not that dream again!

Don't get me wrong, a dream where I'm being screwed into my mattress by my boyfriend isn't a bad one. It's quite the contrary actually. The only downside of having the dream is that feeling the I get from it afterwords. I always feel guilty dreaming about Marco like that, not to mention that my want to do these activities increases after waking up. I felt like some horny fucking teenager who can't control their own urges all the time and I fucking hated it. I just wanted to wait until Marco was ready and heaven knows when that would be.

Sighing heavily through my nose, I threw my blankets off my body and began my morning activities. Use the bathroom, shower, try not to think about Marco while showering, get out, dry off, brush teeth, attempt putting in contacts (they didn't go in on this particular morning), and finally get dressed while having a miniature dance party to Daft Punk. After finishing everything I stood in front of the full length hallway mirror staring at myself. I wore skinny jeans (yes, I realize it's summer, I wore them regardless) and a t-shirt with Justice League on it. I ruffled my hair slightly and smiled. _'Looking good, good looking' _I thought to myself, chuckling as I did so.

"Might as well head off to work. Don't want to be late now, do you?" I said softly to my reflection. I don't often converse with myself, I promise. It's just sometimes I'm the only person I can find to talk to, I trust you know what I mean.

I started to make my way to the café choosing to grab something to eat when I got there. As I Walked into the small restaurant I noticed Jaeger (who actually was still working Annie's shifts, I'm almost certain she's either been faking her sickness for a little over a week or has just full on quit her job) talking to someone who I didn't recognize. The man was fairly short, with dark hair styled in an undercut. He wore some kind of bikers jacket and black pants that cut off at his shin. When Eren finally noticed me over the short males head I raised a brow at him. He smiled brightly, beckoning me towards him.

"Horse-face, since I met Marco the other day I thought you might as well meet my boyfriend. Jean this is Levi," Eren made a whole bunch of stupid hand gestures. "Levi this is Jean." The same hand movements were made but in the opposite direction. Levi looked up at me with slate-grey eyes that were lined ever so slightly with makeup. Now that I was closer to him I started noticing his finer details, such as his earrings, tattoos and snake-bites.

"Nithe to meet you. You're a friend of thith little shit, right?" Levi lisped heavily on most of his S words. I would never say this out loud but it was kind of adorable.

"Pleasure to meet you too... I'm uhmm... kind of an acquaintance of Eren's."

"Ouch Jean, you dickweed. I thought I meant more to you," Eren sarcastically mocked being hurt by placing his hand over his heart and frowning.

"Uthing my vocabulary now are we Eren?" Levi turned his attention back to his boyfriend and cocked a thin pierced eyebrow.

"How could I not?" Eren smirked at the smaller man in front of him, "you totally find it hot, don't you?"

"I'm not thaying a word." Grabbing his shirt collar Levi pulled Eren forward and kissed him. I took my chance to leave for the kitchen when I noticed the brunette's tongue starting to lap at the raven's snakebites. I also took this as my chance to shoot Marco a text.

**Baby, Eren and his boyfriend keep making out, please, please, please, please, please, PLEASE, come by the café. I wanna kiss someone hot tooooooo! -Jean**

Seconds later Marco replied,** I'm already on my way, and if your asking me to make out with you let's at least do it in private. -MB**

**Well, no ones even in the café other than Eren and Levi and I'm pretty sure they're already occupied with each other. The kitchen is free though.- Jean**

He didn't reply back, so I was left to my own thoughts until I heard the bells attached to the door jingle. "Marco?" I yelled from the kitchen. My reply was the sound of shoes on tile and the swinging door opening. "There he is, my angel, my king!" I straightened myself up and for once went over to him instead of making my 'grabby hands'. He smiled thrusting his phone towards me. **How long has it been since I last saw you? Like six hours. You're practically jumping out of your own skin to see me.**

I pursed my lips slightly knitting my brows together, "can't I be excited to see my better half?"

**Sure you can. I was just wondering why you were this excited. I'm not complaining though.**

Shrugging I kissed the top of his head. "I just am." I whispered quietly, more to myself than him. "Aren't you excited to see me?" Puppy dog eyes were made in his direction as I slipped one of my hands into his and dipped him, like those romantic dancers or some shit. The hand that wasn't interlocked with his held the small of his back for support. Smiling he wrapped his free arm around my neck and pulled me down into a kiss that nearly caused me to topple us both over. I could feel his lips curve upwards into a smirk. Feeling brave I flicked my tongue along his plush bottom lip, he understood my intent and opened his mouth just enough for me to push my way in. Please, no one interrupt this moment!

"Jethuth Chritht don't do that in the kitchen!" Fucking Levi! What an asshole with his tattoos and lisp. I pulled away from Marco and righted him on his feet.

"Why do you get to make out with Eren then?" My lips thinned into a straight line and I glared at him with the most intense gaze I could muster as my cheeks slowly started to heat up.

"We weren't making out in a goddamn kitchen, you make food in here. Food that people eat. Get a room... that'th not the kitchen. Altho it lookth like your about to get a shit ton of consomerth tho get your ath in gear!"

I groaned loudly,"I'll be out in a sec." I turned to Marco, "how 'bout we continue that at my place tonight?"

Marco smirked and wrote, **Will I get you out of your pants there too?**

"If that's what you want..." I blushed hard and looked down at my feet awkwardly.

**Don't you want to?**

"Well," I swallowed a lump that was forming in my throat, "if you want to then I'm okay with it..."

**Be honest Jean, if you're having second thoughts tell me.**

"Maybe we could wait until like the end of summer?"

**Do you want to wait that long?**

"Kirschtein, I need some assistance out here!" Eren yelled towards the kitchen.

"Give me a fucking second Jaeger." I yelled before turning my attention back to Marco "I don't want to wait that long...but I want to make it special with it being our first time as a couple and...you know?" My voice cracked and I trailed off.

**Jean, if that's what you want then I'm down with the end of summer. Now get to work you slacker.**

"I'm not a slacker!" I quipped, smiling at him and striding towards the kitchen door. I turned slightly and winked at him, "see you at the end of summer then."

Marco rolled his eyes, smiled and then shooed me out of the kitchen and into the busy table filled café.

And just like that it was decided. Marco, me and my bed at the end of summer. Something special. Was I nervous? Hells to the yeah I was! Was I excited though? Fucking hells to the goddamn yeah! Was I ready? Well, guess I'd just wait and see huh?


	7. Seven: Our First Time

_S__even. Chapter seven okay guys? This chapter is going to contain SEX. Okay got it? __**SEX! **__two attractive guys __**DOING THE FRICK FRACK! SEXUAL INTERCOURSE IS INVOLVED IN THIS CHAPTER! **__Okay if that wasn't warning enough then I don't know what is. The point I'm trying to get across here is this the fanfiction rating has gone up from T to M because in this chapter the sexy times will commence, okay? Sex will not happen in every chapter from here on out, I promise, but I will throw a little smut in here and there. You get what I'm getting at? So anyway chapter five and six in my mind were kinda blahh boring but I needed to put them in so they could build up to this chapter and whatever. So from here on out this story is kind of going to be like fluff and smut with college life thrown in there too (pssst don't worry Jean is still working at the café even though it was supposed to be a summer job, I'll get into that later in the story)._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_**Warnings: Sex between Jean and Marco.**_

_Enjoy!_

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><p><em><strong>Seven: The First Time<strong>_

August thirty-first. The last day of August. The last day of summer, well not really... summer technically ends around October twenty-second, but the end of August is usually when people start getting back to work and school, Marco and I were heading back to college on September third so the thirty-first basically seemed like the end of summer to us. But anyway, all that stuff aside, the last day of the eighth month was the day we'd chosen to have sex for the first time as a couple. Yes, we'd actually scheduled a day for when we'd do it... Oh, you thought I was a dork before, look at me now you know that little fact! It's not like I'd never had sex or anything. Eren and I used to fuck like rabbits, but the thing with Marco was I just didn't want to fuck everything up between us by having sex to early in our relationship and...I don't even know how to explain it, whenever I think about it I just get anxious and well... it's hard to explain, but I hope you get what I'm trying to say here. Okay, okay, enough of me rambling about how nervous I am about basically nothing, let's get on with it.

August thirty-first, eight O'clock, café closed, tables wiped down, dishes washed, chairs pushed in. Every single odd job and bit of work the could have been done was done. Marco was sitting cross legged on top of the counter watching me intently. I offered him a hand and smiled despite my nerves. His lips curled upwards in an adorable look of pleasure, he took my hand and pushed himself gently off the counter. I locked up the small restaurant before he and I started the short walk to my place.

If I ever told you that I didn't stall on the way there, I'd be lying. I kept stopping to look at the sky and point out constellations to Marco, or I'd stop to look in a store window. Every goddamn plant on the ground seemed interesting and got pointed out. Marco would laugh and shake his head whenever I did anything. I knew that he knew I was nervous and stalling but he didn't seem to mind, we did technically have all night. When we got to my building and up to my apartment I was jittering around so badly that Marco actually took the key from me and unlocked my own place for me. Stepping inside he gave me a knowing look and kissed me softly on the forehead. Biting his bottom lip he shakily passed me his phone: **You're as nervous as I am, right?**

"Jesus Christ Marco, you don't even know," I whispered quietly, we made eye contact and quickly dissolved into small fits of giggles. Calming down from our little laughing fit I coughed and made a couple hand gestures towards my room. Marco cocked an eyebrow at me but started towards the bedroom anyway, his hips swayed slightly as he walked. I placed my hand on his shoulder, which he reacted to by turning his head just enough to look me in the eye.

I smirked, "do you honestly think I'm making you walk?" I bent my knees slightly and scooped him up into my arms, princess style. He squeaked loudly, his long legs kicking outwards and his thin arms wrapping around my neck. I chuckled and kissed his cheek delicately. We moved towards my room slowly, swaying and kissing as we went. At some point we made it down the hall, I of course wasn't aware of this fact until I'd accidentally walked Marco and I straight into a wall. He'd yelped and I'd apologized profusely over and over. In the end I actually got him to our destination without hitting him off anymore walls. Together we fell onto my bed, plush white sheets fells around us. Any anxieties I'd previously felt were now gone, granted I still did feel a distant twang of nervousness somewhere in the back of my mind, though with my lips attached to Marco's I found it was fairly easy to push anything to the deep dark corners of the back of my head.

Sloppily but rhythmically our lips moved together. We nipped and bit at each others bottom lips teasingly, we'd obviously made out before so we knew what we were doing.

"Jesus fucking Christ Marco," I whispered against his lips, "how are you so fucking good at this?" He didn't reply since the question was rhetorical to begin with. Silence followed after that, with the exception of our lips moving together and the occasional groan or two. We'd break away for air only when it was most needed and just for mere seconds.

Gently I played with the hem of his shirt, fingers twisting the fabric and lifting it up ever so slightly. Marco seemed to get the message that I wanted it off because he removed his red and swollen lips from mine, panting heavily. With both my hands I lifted the garment off his body. My breath hitched as I got the perfect view of his upper half, freckles and lightly sun kissed skin in all. Fucking perfect. Ugh.

He smiled gently at me as we locked eyes. Staring at him intently, I began kissing his midriff. Mostly all my kisses were sloppy and open mouthed, placed randomly around his torso. His breath softly hitched twice, when I'd nipped softly at his hip bone and clavicle. From then on I moved my mouth slowly up his neck, biting softly at some places I assumed were sensitive.

I'm being honest with you when I say that necks gave me the heebie-jeebies, during sex or not I don't want mine to be touched. No matter who's touching it I always feel as if Satan himself is violating me. I've been told kisses on the neck are pleasurable, I mean Marco seemed to be down with his neck being showered in kisses, I just refused to see the appeal.

From then on I didn't pay a lot of attention to Marco's neck, one hickey that was getting darker by the moment was enough for this time around. I eventually slipped out of my own shirt, Marco had never actually seen me shirtless yet believe it or not. His already dilated pupils grew just a touch more as his eyes racked over my upper half. His rosebud mouth was formed into a perfect 'O' shape. Slender fingers were clenched into fists and then unclenched, a quirk I'd noticed Marco had a while back that meant he was literally itching to paint or draw something, in this case it was me.

"That impressive to look at, huh?" I joked, I could already feel the dark flush that was spreading from my cheeks down my neck. He nodded, his tongue tracing slowly over his lips. His eyes swooped over my body once or twice more as if he was trying to memorize everything. I coughed slightly, only just now realizing how hard I was.

Marco caught my gaze for what felt like the millionth time that night, his eyes flicked down towards my crotch and then back up. Since we couldn't communicate using words we'd sort of learned how to speak using our eyes. _'Can I get your pants off?' _was to the best of my knowledge what he was saying. I licked my dry lips and nodded.

"Yeah." The only reply that I could form, just one word, yeah. The flush that I mentioned was happening around my neck earlier was now probably down to the tips of my toes.

The button on my jeans popped open easily, the zipper would have come undone just as simply if Marco (being the damn tease he is) hadn't chosen to pull it down with his teeth. He smirked at me after my zipper was down.

He took his sweet time from then on, shimmying my pants down my hips and off my legs. I was now clad in only my boxers which were, to my utter horror, the pair that happened to say 'kiss my ass' in large letters all over them. Of all the pairs of underwear I could have worn today, I chose those ones...fuck my life. Marco made a small noise that resembled a snicker after reading them. "Fuck off." I hissed, smiling despite myself.

We stared at each other for a while, smiles were apparent on both our faces. I honestly think we forgot what we were in the middle of for a moment or two. Marco shook his head and giggled quietly. He kissed me gently on the lips as his fingers hooked underneath the waistband of my 'kiss my ass' boxers. He glanced up at me, his eyes were filled with concern. I nodded him onward, "there's no backing out now baby."

With my words fresh in his mind he pulled down my boxers. I sucked in a breath as the cool air in my apartment hit my fully erect length. Marco's lust filled eyes drank in the sight as he too sucked in a breath, for a completely different reason though. He bit his lip, moving his slightly shaking dominant hand towards me. It wrapped around my cock firmly and gave a few swift pumps. I gasped loudly, urging him to keep going.

"Jesus Christ Marco, no one told me that my beautiful angel happened to be a sex god too." He cocked an eyebrow at that, but grinned none the less. His hand had stopped when I'd spoken, so here I was waiting for him to pick back up with the friction that I at this point really fucking needed. I opened my mouth to ask why he'd stopped, but my question died in my throat and was replaced with a high pitched moan as he did something I hadn't actually expected him to do. He was sucking me off, perfect lips wrapped around my hard cock, head bobbing up and down. My mind hazed and (just like in my perverted dreams) the only thing in this world that mattered was Marco Bodt.

"Holy fucking hell Marco!" I gasped out, threading my fingers through his raven locks. He opened his eyes for a split second to look at me, moments after his lids fluttered closed again and he continued taking me into his mouth. His tongue rubbed over my head and down my length. It didn't take long for him to get my whole cock in his mouth, causing his nose to brush lightly against my hair. If there was such a title as 'The King of Blowjobs' Marco got it, no questions asked.

He deepthroated me for a while, scraping his teeth over my sensitive foreskin every once and a while. When, and only when my cock began leaking beads of precum Marco pulled away from me with a loud popping noise. His lips were coated with saliva, as was my cock. Both out cheeks were dusted with a bright crimson blush.

"Lube and condoms..." I jerked my head in the direction of my nightstand. He climbed over me, opening the top drawer and pulling out what he needed.

I'd bought what we'd need for our bedtime activities sometime last week. You see, Eren used to be the guy who bought these types of things, so this was basically my first time buying condoms and such. It was beyond embarrassing! And it didn't help that the cashier at the store was an elderly lady who wished me luck with my girlfriend and said protection was always a good idea. I vowed to never buy my groceries there ever again in my life ever.

As I not so fondly remembered that, Marco got his fingers lubed up for preparation and without out much warning he started with the first finger. I squeaked because I wasn't ready and hissed soon after due to some discomfort. It didn't take long for me to get used to the feeling and start to enjoy the single digit. The second was added soon after and the scissoring motion began. I covered my eyes with my forearm and let out a small whine. The last finger was added to the mix not long after. I'd never really enjoyed preparation, I realized it was necessary I just didn't find anything all that amazing about it . Then again prep was always rushed through when I was with Eren, Marco on the other hand was taking his time. Careful making sure that everything was just right so nothing would hurt.

He pulled his fingers back, pecking me carefully on the lips while he slowly began to pull his pants off. I choked on my own spit upon seeing his cock. It was fucking huge. I blinked rapidly, biting my lip unable to look away from my partner. Marco too bit his lip, and rolled a condom onto his length. I propped myself up on my elbows, watching his every movement. After lubing up his cock, he looked at me. His eyes shone with concern, 'are you ready for this?'

I swallowed and nodded. Marco gave me a reassuring smile and positioned himself up with my hole. Slowly he began pushing himself in. I gasped out and furrowed my brow. He stopped when he was about half way in, our eyes locked. I licked my lips, "just...wait," I whispered. He took a moment, waiting for me to adjust. I forced myself to calm down. When I finally felt ready, I nodded.

"O-okay...keep going." I gasped slightly, he kept pushing himself in, until I was completely filled. He began to pull out before snapping his hips back. I moaned out, my hands flew up to wrap around his shoulders. Marco picked up a steady pace that had me screaming out his name. It didn't take him long to find a certain bundle of nerves deep inside me.

"Jesus, Marco!" I screeched at an octave I didn't really know I could hit, "there, right there. Oh my god, fuck yes!" I babbled on about how perfect he was and how much I loved him, my words were just flowing like a fountain as he mercilessly thrust into me, hitting my prostate with every fourth or fifth thrust. Every thought of being nervous had dissolved from my mind ages ago, Marco was all that mattered right now. His thrusts were deep and perfectly angled, always hitting the right places at the right times.

It didn't take long after that for me to come undone. With Marco's lips pressed against mine, I'd sobbed out his name and came. He'd lasted longer than I had and kept thrusting until he too came and let out a small strangled cry. We lay there panting heavily until he pulled out, slipped off his condom, tied it and threw it into the waist bin. I groped around until I found a sheet to cover the two of us.

"That was amazing." I whispered into his ear. He smiled at me, pulling his phone from his pants which had been unceremoniously thrown on the carpeted floor.

**I'm glad you enjoyed yourself Jean, I know I did.**

I smiled at him, stretching slightly. "You up for another round?" I joked.

**I am if you are.**

"Seriously?" I questioned. He nodded

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><p>A few rounds and various positions later he and I lay on my bed completely worn out. "Goodnight." I murmured into his damp hair before we fell asleep. Marco was curled into my chest, my arms wrapped around him protectively. A very good night indeed.<p> 


	8. Eight: A Lazy Day

_W__riters block for sure sucks ass, I'm not even kidding it's the worst! So basically long story short, I kept putting off writing this chapter all week because the words just wouldn't flow properly. Meeeeeeh._

_So anyway, I have two announcements today! Number one: I've fully planned out this story and it's going to be somewhere around thirty-five chapters instead of the original estimated twenty-one, and number two I'm going to write a longish smutty one-shot about Jean and Eren's relationship before this story. So if you ship JeanEren then I'll let you guys know when I get that done._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Warnings: No hardcore smut but there is a blowjob._

_Enjoy._

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><p><strong>Eight: A Lazy Day<strong>

You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to know that I fucking hate mornings, well not really, let me rephrase that, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to know that I fucking hate waking up. Just the act of waking up, not what follows suit. I hate the crusty and blurry as fuck shit that forms in my eyes over night and I can't stand the blipping sound of my alarm clock from hell waking me up. Long story short, getting out of bed sucks ass, and I need a shower and a shit-load of caffeine in my system before I can even begin to think that waking up (usually to go to work) was even worth my time.

Basically the point I'm trying to get across here is that over ninety percent of the time I'm not a morning person. Seriously though, I'm a fucking college student, do you honestly think I'm going to get out of bed like Cinderella? Hell no.

On the morning of September the first I wish I could say I'd sprung out of bed at the crack of dawn and made my boyfriend breakfast, but if I told you that I'd be doing a special little thing called lying. Marco was the one to wake me up, and he basically had to shove me off the bed to do so. I was totally worn out from the night before, getting done in the ass like four times is tiring, okay?

From my mess of sheets on the floor I squinted up at him and tried to ignore the pain in my ass. He lay on his stomach, his feet in the air behind him and his head resting on his hand. Unintentionally my eyes traced random patterns over his skin using his freckles as guides. When he noticed how hard I was staring at his unclothed body I could literally feel my face down to my neck turning a vibrant shade of pink. My eyes widened and I averted my gaze quickly from him to the sheet I was still tangled in, which I absentmindedly picked at until a familiar phone was passed down to me.

**Welcome to the waking world sleeping beauty. If you really want to, you can come up on the big boy bed with me and you can stare at me to your hearts content, you'll get a better view and I mean who knows I might let you touch me...**

"You better not be bull shitting me about that last part."

**Oh I wouldn't BS a BSer, Jean.**

"You'd best not BS a BSer," I stated, pulling myself up onto the bed. Surprisingly enough I didn't wince all that loudly when I sat down, or at least I didn't think it was that loud.

**You're a little sore down there, huh? Sorry.**

"Don't apologize," I wiggled myself around until I found a some what comfortable position, "it was totally worth it."

**Whatever you say then. Hey Jean, could I by any chance use your shower?**

I laughed slightly, "Marco, number one: you're my boyfriend therefore meaning you don't have to ask to use my shower. Number two: I thought I was permitted to touch you, how can I do that unless you're here in bed with me? Number three...I don't actually have a third point to make, but you get what I mean."

He snorted at my dorkiness and wrote: **Shower sex? It's kinda meeting half way. **

I stretched my aching muscles and took a moment to think, "kinky, why the fuck not?" With that I got up and made my way towards the bathroom across the hall, hobbling as I did so.

Marco stood and stretched, he let out a loud sigh of content, my jaw dropped to the floor as he was doing this because I got a perfect view of his ass. Awkwardly I coughed as my face flushed.

"Loving the view," I remarked, leaning on the door frame. Marco craned his neck to look at me, a smirk was apparent on his face. I smiled looking him up and down once more before turning on my heel and moving into the bathroom. As I got the hot water running I stepped into the shower. He joined me a few minutes later.

"Glad you finally decided to join me," I whispered, wrapping my arms around him. I kissed his forehead gently, which I had to go up on my tip toes to do. I ran my hands slowly up and down his sides, his skin was insanely soft. It was the kind of soft that made everyone more than slightly jealous. He smiled, placing his hands on top of mine and gazing into my eyes lovingly.

I cocked a questioning eyebrow as he slowly guided my hands down towards his prominent hip bones. "Oh..." I breathed quietly. Slowly I dropped down to my knees and gazed up at him through half lidded eyes. His breath hitched.

"This is what you were suggesting, right?" He nodded briskly and I smiled crookedly up at him. I pumped his length slowly a few times. Despite the warm water washing over both of us he shivered. I stroked him into semi-hardness before I took him into my mouth. I held his hips as I began bobbing my head. Marco let the most adorable noises quietly slip past his lips. I pulled back slightly and took a moment to pay attention to his head. I nibbled lightly which caused him to moan loudly. I smirked as best as I could with a cock shoved in my mouth and continued sucking him off.

We stayed like this for a while until, nearly gagging, I pulled away from Marco and shrieked. "Oh mother fucker that's fucking cold! Holy fuck!" The hot water had run out... the hot fucking water ran out on us. Scrambling around, I moved to turn the tap off.

"We just ran out of fucking hot water..." I sat on the shower floor for a moment before bursting into laughter. I facepalmed and continued giggling, "who else would that happen to other than us?" Marco was giggling at this point also.

"Let's get dried off and then we can finish up." I glanced down at his cock. He nodded and that was exactly what we did.


	9. Nine: College

_H__ere __I am with another chapter! Number nine. Nine whole chapters. This is officially the longest I've ever stuck with a story so I'm feeling really awesome about it. The power of JeanMarco will always keep me inspired. Haha so uhmm anyway, I've been working on my JeanEren oneshot as well as this chapter. I don't believe it will be out this weekend, it might (or might not) be out later in the week. So yeah JeanEren smut shippers keep your eyes peeled for that, woop woop. That's about all I've got to say on this chapter._

_Oh, before I go on I really just want to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story and/or followed it. You all mean so much to me!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters people or places used in this story. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_P.S. Jean is taking a lot of language classes because I just want him to be able to speak in a whole bunch of languages (especially French). I really dunno... just because._

_P.P.S Jean has embarrassing friends. _

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><p><strong>Nine: College<strong>

Everything has to end eventually, it's just the way our lives go...- hold up, that sounds way to emotional for what I'm talking about right now. I'm talking about summer vacations ending and heading back into the 'real world', which I guess is quite emotional for certain people. I am definitely not one of those people, I love college, having all these responsibilities thrust onto my shoulders and writing papers, oh I just love writing papers. Ugh. I really hope that my sarcasm was obvious there because the truth is I can't stand writing papers or carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. If it's not obvious to you yet I'm going to flat out say it, I fucking hate college. At this point you can most likely assume that as I watched my final days of summer slip through my fingertips I was less than impressed. My days at the café wound to a close as I felt I'd saved up enough for the time being. I also spent every possible moment with Marco. I'd figured out that in my two months with him that he was in fact my first real best friend. Sure, I've had friends before, it's just none of them seemed to be on par with Marco, I'd clicked with him instantly. I could tell him anything, vice versa. We had faith in each other. Everything that is important in any kind of relationship, we seemed to have.

It didn't really occur to me until September sixth that going back to college meant spending less time with Marco. I mean I should have known since he's in the Trost College art program and seventy-five percent of my classes were language and English ones, also we are students which means ass-loads of homework almost if not every night. I was actually getting a little scared Marco and I would start seeing very little if any of each other.

Anyway, on September the sixth as I pulled myself drowsily from my bed, I tried my best to push all those thoughts away. I ended up failing dramatically because I spent a good portion of my morning thinking about not seeing Marco. At some point I tricked myself out of my thoughts by pledging to always eat one meal with him. I hated being anxious and scared of things that might not even happen but I couldn't help it, I Jean Kirschtein am a worrywart when it comes to my boyfriend and I happen to not give a shit.

Slowly with coffee in hand I got ready for school, grabbing some pens and my messenger bag before heading out the door. Marco and I had spoken about what classes we were taking and when we were taking them. I'd made sure he wouldn't be lonely in any of his classes and that he'd have an efficient way of communicating with his teachers and whatnot (I'm like totally not a protective boyfriend, what are you talking about?). As I walked I took my chances and sent Marco a text that said something along the lines of:** I'm heading off to school. I hope you have a wonderful day! See you at lunch? **

I walked briskly to my destination and made it there in no time. Trost College of Business and the Arts (Trost College for short) was a collection of large red brick buildings that could be found about seventeen minutes (on foot) away from my apartment building. The college itself was fairly new, though some of the buildings were a bit worse for wear, for example the science building has definitely seen better days.

Taking a swig of my coffee I walked into one of the large buildings, my eyes swept over the hallway of doors ahead of me. I was looking for room 205, the French room. 205...205...205...there it was! I walked through the open door and regarded the free seats, surprisingly enough there was a fair number of them left.

"Jean!" I snapped my head around to see who was calling for me. It happened to be Sasha Braus. Sasha was around average height with brownish auburn hair that she kept tied in a ponytail, she was the most hyper being on this planet and always had a craving to eat something. I'd known Sasha since I met Ymir which was ages ago now.

"Sasha!" I spread my arms, "how's my queen of kitten cuddles?" She smiled brightly and embraced me with one of her signature bone crushing hugs.

"I'm positively wonderful!" She let go of me and started talking with her hands as she started giving a short summary of her summer, "how's my Jean king of all things?" She added as more of an after thought than anything.

"I'm good all things considered." I answered honestly.

"Are you good or good for nothing?" Sasha squinted and jabbed a finger at me.

"Sorry, what I meant was I'm well all things considered."

"That's better. Anyway how did this whole summer thing go for you?".

"It was pretty good actually. I kinda met someone."

Sasha's eyes widened just as they used to when I told her things like this back in high school, "Jean Kirschtein tell me everything. Have you told Ymir yet? What about Connie. How about Armin? Do Rei and Bert know? Ohhh god...does Eren know?"

"Chill out Sash. Ymir knows, she was like the first. Eren also knows, and he's basically cool with it. None of the others know though, I've barely been in contact with them this summer." I chuckled slightly. Ymir and Sasha were always within the first people to find out about things like relationships and crushes in my life. Back in high school they were the only people I thought would support me and that I trusted with that kind of information and over the years it kind of became a tradition to tell them.

"So you gonna tell me about this mystery man or not?" Sasha tapped her foot against the ground and crossed her arms.

"If you'd let me take a seat I'll tell you all about him." I started edging towards a place to sit.

"Fine, whateves." Sasha took her place and I sat next to her. As always she attentively listened as I told her everything. When I finished talking I swear to god she was out grinning the Cheshire Cat.

"He sounds perfect, Jean! Can I meet him?"

I shrugged, "I don't see why not,"

"Fabulous!" She threw her hands up and grinned even more.

Sasha and I talked for about another fifteen minutes before our lesson actually started. She and I spent a majority of the time passing notes back and forth and surprisingly not getting caught. At the end of the class Sasha whispered to me, "we probably should have listened to at least some of that."

"Yeah, we should've. Whatever, can't go back in time now." I shrugged.

"Someone get the doctor, I need his T.A.R.D.I.S so I can pass my exams later this year!" she threw her arms up and I laughed, pulling her out of the classroom with me, "come on time lord, what do you have next?"

"My next class is after lunch so I'm going to go hang with Connie. What do you have?"

"I've got an ancient history class to go to in eight minutes."

"I think Armin and Bert mentioned something about an ancient history class at some point." Sasha smiled, waved and then turned on her heel, "see you at lunch?"

"See ya, kitten queen." I waved her off before starting my way to my next class.

Before I go on to tell you about ancient history I think I should probably tell you about my weird group of friends. First off there's Sasha and Ymir but I've already talked about them enough. Sasha has a boyfriend named Connie, he's a shorter guy with a shaved head. Ymir also has a girlfriend named Christa who I've mentioned before. Then there's Eren you already know all about him too. Eren's got two best friends named Armin and Mikasa who hang out with us a fair amount of the time. Armin is a shorter blond guy who can be found reading a majority of the time, he might not look like much but he's probably one of the smartest people I know. Mikasa on the other hand is a taller woman with raven hair that's paired with grey eyes, she is Eren's adopted sister and can often be found by his side. Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie are the newest additions to our group. Reiner is a really buff and kind of scary at times blonde guy who loves embarrassing his boyfriend Bertholdt. Bertholdt is insanely tall and insanely shy but he's nice enough. Annie as I've stated before is very short, very angry and is currently with Mikasa. There you have it that's my group of friends, we're dysfunctional, we're weird but somehow we work. Back to ancient history now:

As I walked into the goodly sized lecture hall where ancient history was being held, I found that Sasha was right and both Armin and Bertholdt were there. Armin waved me over, a pleasant smile apparent on his face, "good morning, Jean.!"

"Hey," Bertholdt murmured shyly, ducking his head as he did so.

"Mornin' guys. How're you both?" I smiled gently and took a seat next to Armin.

"I'm good, thanks." Bertholdt smiled gently at me.

"I'm great Jean, and yourself?"

"I'm fine." I said and Armin nodded.

Our conversation stopped as the class started. I swear that I listened for about half of it until Marco finally chose to text me back.

**Lunch in an hour?**

**Lunch in an hour.** I texted back.

**Good, lunch in an hour. Could you pick me up at the art building?**

**I'll be there. baby.**

Lunch in an hour. Marco in an hour. Hour. Hour. Ugh. Hour. College sucks! I can't make it through a whole hour.

Forty-five minutes, pay attention to class...half an hour, pay attention to class...twenty-five minutes, pay attention to class...fifteen minutes, pay attention to class...ten minutes, fuck the class! Five minutes, oh my god five minutes! Four...three...two...one! One...one...one- "Class dismissed."

I shot up from my seat, uttered a quick goodbye to Armin and Bertholdt and rushed straight out the door. I made it to the art building in record time and found Marco standing outside.

"You come here often cutie?" I asked, crossing my arms. Marco looked up from his phone at me, a smile broke out on his face in a matter of seconds. He typed out a message for me and passed his phone over.

**I might come here more often if you do.**

"No Marco," I complained childishly, "I'm supposed to be the smooth one."

**Please Jean, keep living that fantasy for me.**

"You're a big meanie pants, Marco Bodt."

**You're in love with this 'big meanie pants' though.**

"Can't fight with you on that one," I wrapped my arm around his shoulder. "I need food, let's get lunch."

As we walked to the campus cafeteria I told him about my day so far and he did the same. As it turns out, Christa is in the art program too so he spent most of his morning with her. I'd told him about how Sasha wanted to meet him and how ancient history went. Together we walked into the cafeteria and were greeted by Connie yelling-

"GET DOWN MISTER PRESIDENT!"

"Oh fuck." I whispered stepping out of the way in the last second to avoid getting tackled. Marco stared at me with wide eyes.

"No dodging Kirschstein! I almost ran into that wall." Connie slapped me gently on the back.

"Who's fault is that now?" I asked.

Connie thought for a moment before saying, "not mine."

"Right." I muttered sarcastically.

Connie took a moment to lay his wide golden-brown eyes on Marco, he smiled. "Who's this?" He asked.

"This is Marco Bodt, my boyfriend."

Connie thrust his hand forward "it's nice to meet you Marco."

Marco gently took his hand and shook it. He opened his mouth only to snap it shut and furrow his brow. Connie cocked an eyebrow slightly. "Are you okay?" he asked cautiously.

My eyes widened slightly, "oh god. Umm hey, Con can I talk with you for a sec?" He nodded slightly as I pulled him aside.

"Is he just shy or did I do something wrong...?"

"No, you didn't do anything wrong, trust me!" I patted him gently on the shoulder. "It's just, Marco isn't able to speak, okay?"

"Well that explains it... oh Jesus! I didn't offend him did I?"

"Don't worry, I doubt you offended him." Connie nodded awkwardly and ran back to where Marco was still standing, looking slightly confused.

"Sorry about that, it's great to meet you, Marco!" Connie grabbed his hands again, "c'mon, I'll introduce you to the rest of Jean's friends, they'll love you!" Connie slowly dragged my mortified looking boyfriend to the table where my friends were all sat. I followed chuckling to myself.

"Reiner, Annie, Bert, Sasha, Eren, Armin, Mikasa, Ymir and Christa this is Marco, Jean's boyfriend!" Connie pointed each person out individually. "Marco this is Reiner, Bert, Sasha, Eren, Armin, Mikasa, Ymir and Christa."

Marco waved shyly as each person in the group gave some kind of acknowledgment to his existence. Sasha scooted her chair closer to me and leaned in to whisper, "god Jean, you forgot to mention your boyfriend was an adorable stud-muffin."

"I didn't forget to mention it, I wanted you to see for yourself." I smirked at her and crossed my arms across my chest. She shook her head knowingly and pushed her chair back to its rightful place. I kept the smirk apparent on my face when Marco turned to like at me. He smiled, nervously.

"Okay guys," I raised my hands up, moving closer to the worn cafeteria table, "stop hogging my boyfriend." I placed my arm around Marco's shoulder as a few people at the table began to chuckle. I tried hard not to flush when Marco gently placed his lips on my cheek, sadly I failed miserably and blushed from the tips of my ears down to my collarbone.

"Oh my god Kirschstein, you blush even more than Bert at PDOA!" Reiner pointed out.

"F-fuck off." I stammered wanting for nothing more than to leave the conversation. "I'm going to go get food now. Anyone want anything?" My reply was a chorus of 'no' and a head shake from Marco, I made a mental note to get them something anyway.

When I ordered my food and waited for it to be made I kept a watchful eye on the lunch table. Marco seemed to have taken a liking to Armin and from what I could see they were communicating, Armin would talk some and then Marco would make a bunch of gestures and then the blond would reply back. Of course that blond bastard knew sign language, what didn't he know? I was completely lost in my thoughts that I didn't even notice my food was ready.

"Sir, your food is ready." It took me a moment to realize that that comment was directed towards me.

"Oh, thanks." I handed the lunch lady some money and took the lunch tray back to the table.

"Food." I announced placing the tray down on the table. "You guys all said you didn't want anything but I think I bought enough for everyone anyway, so it's up for shares." I pushed the tray that was filled with mostly junk towards the center of the table. Lunch from there on in was spent catching up with everyone, having Eren talk loudly about irrelevant stuff, and holding hand with Marco under the table. Good times, yeah?

After lunch I had three classes to attend: Journalism, Greek, and (a thirty minute break) German. Each class was both interesting and boring. I swear to god I don't remember college being this hard on me last year, it was only my first day and I was ready to call it quits!

"Fuck college!" I muttered grumpily as I threw my messengers bag on a chair. I flopped down on my sofa, closing my eyes tightly. Homework could come later, I needed some shut eye.I fell asleep like that on the sofa in record time with my shoes still on and everything.

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><p>When I awoke several hours later I was in my bed with a note on the pillow next to me, groggily I sat up and read it.<p>

**You should keep your apartment door locked Jean, anyone could get in. I came by to spend a little time with you before school tomorrow, but apparently you took a convenient little Odin sleep. I decided to bring you a place that's a little more comfortable. Rest up. - XOXO Marco Bodt**

Marco, that wonderfully perfect man who I called my own! I told myself I'd buy him flowers or something tomorrow as my mind clouded with sleep once again. Rest now, homework later, flowers in the morning, good plan.


	10. Ten: Live For The Weekend

_H__ey guys! This chapter is kind of almost lateish, I realize that. Last week was kind of rough for me so I just didn't really have the time or energy to write a chapter. On the bright side though I'm on March break this week so I believe I might get two or three chapters done and uploaded. I might also get the JeanEren smut oneshot finished too. Yay!_

_I realize this chapter is kind of a shortie but the next chapter is going to be smutty so I thought that would make up for this short fry of a chapter. Warning: Lame semi-filler is lame._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used in this story. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy!_

_**Note: Levi is in this chapter and I am keeping his lisp in there. I understand it may be hard to understand in places because the words probably look weird with TH instead of S right? So from now on either at the beginning or at the end of a chapter he's in there will be a little word bank with the words written out properly. I really really hope that helps some.**_

_**1- Eren's 2-Boys 3-Swear 4-Sex 5- Because 6- House 7-Soon 8-This 9-This 10- Summer 11-Some 12-This 13- See 14- He's 15-Almost 16-Years**_

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><p><strong>Ten: Live For The Weekend<strong>

Flowers, homework, sleep, lunch, homework, sleep, coffee, homework, sleep, homework, sleep. This was basically my first week back to school in a nutshell. Lots of sleep, lots of homework and a painful lack of Marco. Sure, I saw him a little; like at lunch, but that's only thirty minutes to an hour with him and it wasn't just the two of us spending time together anyway. Needless to say, not seeing my boyfriend enough during the week had turned me into Mr. Grumpy-Grump and Marco knew it. Being the awesome boyfriend he is though, he decided to take me out on Friday night to make up for my crappy week.

He'd walked to my apartment and picked me up around six. We didn't know what to do, so we mostly walked around Trost together searching for something and talking about our weeks. I honestly didn't really care what I was doing with him, I was just happy to be alone with him for once this week. Sadly the two of us alone didn't last long because Eren and his short-stop of a boyfriend Levi walked up to us.

"Oh my god Jaeger, go away!" I groaned.

"Chill Kir...Kertch...Kretch..Kresh... oh my fucking fuck," Levi scowled at the ground, not able to say my last name correctly. "Chill Jean, we're only here to invite you to a Eren'th party."

"And why are you inviting me of all people?"

"Because I can you ass-hat, everyone else is going to be there." Eren crossed his arms, "are you coming or not?" He pouted and then glanced over at Marco, he smiled gently, "your invited too, cutie."

I grabbed Marco's arm protectively, "he's mine, so back off dumb ass."

Levi rolled his eyes and gently gnawed on his bottom lip, "don't flirt with other boyth Eren or I thwear I won't have thex with you for a whole year. " he turned his attention over to me, "are you or aren't you coming becauthe we need to get back to the houthe thoon."

Glancing at my boyfriend who shrugged, I nodded, "Yeah, we'll be there."

"Great, see you there then horse-face!" Eren gave a dorky little wave and Levi gave a curt nod before walking away.

I exhaled loudly, glancing over at Marco who smiled brightly up at me. He passed his phone over to me after writing a short message.

**Onward then, my darling?**

"My darling?"

**I was trying to be romantic.**

"I think you failed there, baby."

**Ahhh mess off man. Let's go.**

"'Kay," I murmured, grabbing his hand.

When we were about half way to Eren's place I started regretting my choice of going to the party. I'd been to Eren's parties before and it's not like they were bad they're just chaotic. There was always lots of alcohol being passed around, lots of couples fucking (or almost fucking) in random places and of course they were really, really loud. I guess in a way they were like any other college party.

My hand unintentionally gripped Marco's tighter when we walked into Eren's house. As expected there were loads of people crammed into the small space of the downstairs, music was blaring and drinks were flowing. This brought back memories. Not necessarily good memories, but memories nonetheless.

Upon walking into the party, Levi sauntered over to us, a lazy smirk apparent on his face, "bet you remember thith, huh?"

"Yeah, unfortunately I do," I sighed.

"Mhhm, the shitty brat wanted to throw a party like thith every fucking night over the thummer. Thank god I went back to Victoria for thome of July. I don't think I could put up with thith every night. You should thee the brat when he'th hungover"

"Oh I know Levi. How have you put up with him for the past year?" I questioned.

"Almotht two yeath and I don't really fucking know..." Levi sighed patting me lightly on the shoulder. He walked away, probably to look for Eren.

It was then and only then that I realized I still had Marco's hand locked in my iron grip, I laughed sheepishly and let go, "sorry."

**It's fine Jean, I was actually kind of enjoying myself. That's like the first physical contact I've had with you in a week.**

Ugh, Marco you speak only the truth. When I opened my mouth to tell him how right he was I felt myself being shoved against the nearest wall. What in the name of time space and glory? He pressed his lips against mine, nipping gently at my bottom lip. Oh my god, he wasn't. I gasped at a particularly hard bite.

"Marco," I groaned into the kiss, "not here." He pulled away, raising a questioning eyebrow at me.

"We're not being one of those sleazy couples that almost fuck in public." I laughed lightly and pecked his nose, "if you wanna get our sexy time on then we can head to your place, 'kay?"

**One hour here, and then we head home. Deal?**

I kissed his nose again and lightly smacked his ass, "deal."


	11. Eleven:Friday Nights & Saturday Mornings

_S__mut and fluff my friends! I repeat smut and fluff! This is for big news for reals. Anyway uhmmm, I really don't have any announcements, I'm still working on the JeanEren smut onshot and I'm starting to think about an Ereri smut oneshot I dunno yet, we'll have to wait and see. Anyway my authors notes always seem so long , so for once I'm going to stop rambling and get on with the chapter, I hope it makes up for the shortness if chapter 10._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Warnings: Dorky sexy scenes with Jean and Marco (This chapter is kinda PWP)_

_Enjoy._

_P.S. I hope this makes up for the shortness of chapter 10._

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><p><strong>Eleven: Friday Nights and Saturday Mornings<strong>

The hour at the party didn't feel much like an hour, it felt more like six years, and it was a long assed six years at that. Marco had quickly found Armin so the sign language conversations commenced between the two of them and I had to awkwardly try and make conversation with Armin's tall thick eyebrowed stud-muffin of a boyfriend Erwin, whom I'd never met before. Let's just say I was beyond thankful to boot it out of there after an hour... or six years, however fucking long I was actually there.

Once we were standing outside Eren's house I'd challenged Marco to a race all the way back to is apartment, which was actually only a few blocks away from Eren's house. He'd accepted my challenge and actually won. I let him win though, because I'm like totally fit and didn't run out of breath around the second block. When I finally caught up to him, he was waiting just outside the door of his apartment building, leaning on the redbrick door frame with his arms crossed. I huffed out a quiet laugh as I tried to get enough oxygen into my lungs.

"I guess you win," I panted out between wheezing gasps.

**I guess I did. Do I by any chance get a prize?**

"I can probably be topless and on your bed in five minutes. Once I'm there you can paint me like one of your french girls if you so desire."

**Shirtless and on my bed sounds pretty promising, I'll take it.**

"Clock is ticking then, baby, I need my five minutes." I tapped my wrist.

**Yeah yeah, five minutes.** He handed me his keys and nodded towards the door.

As it turns out I didn't even need the full five minutes. Getting up to Marco's apartment took about a minute, getting in only took about thirty seconds, kicking my shoes off and running to his bedroom also took twentyish seconds and finally getting my cotton t-shirt off and jumping onto his king-sized bed only took around ten seconds. Two minutes, three to spare.

As Marco walked into his room, I smiled and made finger guns at him, "ehhh."

He squinted at me and raised an eyebrow.

"I just killed the mood, didn't I?'

Marco scrunched up his nose adorably, raising his pointer finger and thumb, _'a little bit.'_

"Sorry," I muttered semi-sheepishly. He shrugged, (which was indeed a very Marco-esque thing to do at a time like this) plunking himself down on the bed next to me.

"Sex still, even though I killed the mood right?"

Marco snorted and hit my shoulder gently, he nodded nonetheless.

"Good," I smiled up at him and captured his lips with my own. He slowly wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pushed us down onto the bed. Okay seriously, Marco had the softest lips on this fucking planet. He must use assloads of chapstick or something, because seriously they are so fucking soft.

Anyway, Marco's fucking glorious tongue was shoved down my throat. I was dragging my hands slowly down his sides and over his chest. Jesus, I loved this man, seriously he and I had a thing for taking long periods of time for make out sessions, like I'm pretty sure Marco and I could probably get off from making out alone.

He pulled away from the kiss and smiled down at me, his freckled cheeks were dusted with the smallest blush. My cheeks (and probably my neck) were most likely a dark shade of crimson by now.

"You're enjoying your prize now, aren't you?"

Marco tilted his head to the side, a smile was still spread across his lips.

"You are so, no doubt about it."

He shrugged and leaned in to kiss my neck, I shivered and squeaked loudly. Yes, I fucking squeaked, I don't like having my fucking neck touched. Marco went to nip lightly at my neck with his satanic sharp teeth of doom, I shrieked and pushed him off of me.

"No! Mother fucking teeth from hell, no! Fuck no! No! Did I forget to say no? Because no! You can literally bite my nipples off for all I care, just do not do the thing with my neck! No. Not my neck..."

Marco pressed his hand to his forehead and began giggling like a maniac.

"Not my neck," I repeated childishly, shivering. Marco put his hands up in defeat, still giggling slightly. I sighed and laughed along with him.

It was at times like this when I remembered just how perfect Marco was. He was literally the definition of adorkable, with his small fits of giggles and whatnot. Seriously I loved him so much, I know I say that a lot but you know what, I don't give a fuck.

Marco shimmied himself forward again, he kissed my forehead lightly, running his hands gently up and down my arms, I shivered slightly again. He placed a fleeting trail of kisses along my collarbone, wisely choosing to not leave any marks. Moving on from my clavicle he placed slow open mouth kisses down my chest. Marco is a fucking sex god, I don't care what anyone else thinks, he fucking is.

After his trail of kisses found the hem of my pants, he regarded my clothed erection with his bright lust filled brown eyes. Gently he poked his tongue out and licked my length through my jeans. My fists clenched the sheets underneath me and I let out an embarrassingly loud moan. I gnawed on my bottom lip as I propped myself up on my elbows to look at him. Slowly he popped the button on my jeans... then came the zipper...then off came my jeans.

"This isn't fair Marco," I squinted and crossed my arms, "get that shirt of yours off."

Slowly he pushed each button through it's hole and slipped his shirt over his slightly tanned shoulders.

"Better," I nodded to myself, sweeping my eyes over him a few times, "much better... but what if we took these off too?" I leaned forwards and popped the button of his shorts, they slid slowly down his hips.

"I think we're even now." I flicked my eyes down towards his bulge, swallowing the lump that was forming in my throat. I hooked my fingers under the waistband of his X-Men boxers and pulled them down, exposing his hardened length to the air. He hissed quietly. I smirked up at him, my hand wrapping around his length, giving a few swift pumps. I lowered my head and slowly gave him a lick from base to tip. When I took him into my mouth fully he gasped loudly and groaned.

I didn't have the title of blowjob king like Marco, but I'm not half bad at giving them. I mean how bad could I be when Marco was a moaning mess above me? He gripped my hair with his left hand guiding me slowly up and down his length. As Marco's moans got louder and I could tell he was getting close, I pulled away. Wiping the drool from my chin disgustedly, I glanced up at him

He smiled at me, moving to grab the lube and condoms, which I didn't have to awkwardly buy this time. He squeezed a fair amount of lube onto his fingers for preparation. He took his sweet time with it too, making sure to open me up properly so nothing would hurt too badly. Marco ended up finger fucking me for a while, until I was whimpering and practically begging for him to just fucking get in me already. Pulling is fingers out, he ripped open the condom with his teeth and rolled it onto himself. As soon as he pushed himself all the way in, he started to thrust in and out gently. I covered my mouth as I let out a string of loud noises.

"Fuck...f-faster Marco." I commanded. Slowly but surely he picked up the pace. The sound of skin slapping skin filled his bedroom. Moving my hands to his back, my blunt fingernails ran down his skin leaving angered red marks in their wake. He started moving even faster, finding my prostate and thrusting into it mercilessly. I felt a familiar feeling pooling in my lower abdomen. Soon enough I found myself sobbing out Marco's name and coming. Marco thrust a few more times before finishing himself off too.

After Marco tied and threw away his condom we fell asleep in each others arms.

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><p>I woke up to the feeling of being watched.<p>

"Are you...drawing me?" I croaked trying, to blink the sleep out of my eyes. Everything came into focus eventually and there Marco was sitting with a sketchbook. I squinted, "are you listening to David Bowie?"

Marco paused his music and wrote me a short note on a new page of his book:** Yes, I'm listening to David Bowie and yes I was drawing you. Problem?**

"No problems here," I muttered, stretching.

**Good.**

"Good." I repeated. "Hey, can I see the sketches?"

Marco's eyes widened slightly and he quickly wrote: **No, they're not done yet.** He snapped his large coil bound sketchbook closed.

"You weren't drawing my dick, were you?" I asked jokingly.

No reply.

"Oh my god, you weren't?" My mouth dropped and I blushed.

Marco pulled out his phone and typed: I needed practice...

I choked out a laugh, "oh my god, lemme see!"

Marco guarded the book against his chest and shook his head. I tackled him onto the bed.

"Let me see!" He shook his head again. I pouted but still he shook his head.

"C'mon, just a peak." I bounced up and down on the bed slightly, my answer was yet another head shake.

"Fine, I didn't want it to come to this but you give me no other choice..." I flexed my fingers and smirked at him.

In the end, after a large tickle battle, I still didn't get to see the sketches, but I got another round of sex with him so I'm really not complaining.


	12. Twelve: Autumn Leaves

_H__ey __everyone, chapter twelve! Time for time gaps, autumn, tea with a shit ton of sugar, Ymir and cute dorks!__So uhmm yeah, I uploaded in the middle of the week so I don't really have any new news to tell you guys. JeanEren smut oneshot at some point and an Ereri oneshot at some point too, blahblahblah no real news for you guys so yeah I'll just get on with the disclaimer and whatnot._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people, things or places used. I just own the writing_

_Enjoy._

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><p><strong>Twelve: Autumn Leaves<strong>

The days of September began to slowly fade away after that weekend at Marco's. My days at college slowly blended into one another and in the blink of a chocolate brown eye September was over. Leaves began turning from green to reddish orange, falling from their rightful places to the ground below them. Days grew cold and nights grew long. It was official October was here.

I sighed loudly and gripped Marco's hand tighter as we walked under a canopy of crimson leaves. Earlier that day he'd suggested that we should go for a walk. Originally I'd turned down the idea since I was trying to beat the final boss in Skyward Sword, but my boyfriend being the manipulatively adorable bastard he was, turned on his puppy dog eyes (he used the pout too), so I ended up going out with him. We had walked around Trost, enjoying the scenery of fall and each other's company. Marco held my hand for a majority of the time which caused me to wonder if he was being romantic or just trying to keep his hands warm. I decided about half way into the walk that I didn't really care either way.

Reaching upwards I smiled and caught an orange leaf between my fingertips.

"Twenty points," I stated before throwing it back into the air and watching it drop. Marco giggled slightly, standing on his tiptoes to grab a falling leaf of his own. It was red with small flecks of green near the stem. He took a moment to examine it before letting a gust of wind carry it away from his fingertips.

"Thirty points?" I suggested, letting a grin fall over my features. He nodded in agreement, smiling brightly towards me. Awkwardly I blushed, this man was too adorable for his own good. He was going to be the fucking death of me.

"C'mere," I murmured quietly, making my 'grabby hands' towards him. Keeping the smile plastered over his freckled cheeks, he walked into my embrace. I wrapped my arms around his waist as he rested his chin on top of my head. I sighed and gripped him tighter, murmuring a small _'I love you' _into his chest. We stood wrapped in each others arms as the autumn leaves slowly fell around us. I stood on my tiptoes, just barely reaching Marco's lips. Moving my hands from his hips to the back of his neck, I deepened the kiss.

Marco and I stayed like that, arms wrapped around each other, lips moving in a loving kiss, leaves falling all around us. Slowly we broke away from each other as a fierce wind gusted in.

"Fuck, that's cold..." I muttered rubbing my arms through my thick black sweater. Marco shivered, pulling out his phone.

**Let's go get something hot to drink, then we can head back to my place. I'll pay.**

"No, you are not going to pay, I forbid you. I'll pay." I took his hand in my own and started walking, not waiting for a reply. We walked (and shivered) together and chatted until we ended up at the familiar doors of the café.

"Something hot to drink," I smiled over at him, "and for once I don't actually have to make it." I pushed the doors open and sighed. Warmth. Ymir looked up from the table she was cleaning.

"Look it's Jean! You here to get your job back, Johnny-boy?"

"Not a chance, Ymir."

"Then what can I do you for?" She stood up at her full height, placing her hands on her hips.

"Some tea and coffee would be nice,"

"Sure," Ymir smirked slightly. "You take your coffee black, I know that. How do you take your tea, freckles?"

Marco flicked his eyes over to me, so I answered, "with a shit ton of sugar and some milk."

Ymir raised an eyebrow, "helpful," she muttered sarcastically before walking off to make our drinks.

I took Marco's hand and lead him to the nearest booth. "Thank god it's fucking warm in here." I muttered.

**You're such a baby, it wasn't even **_**that**_** cold outside.**

"You felt that wind too, so don't you dare try and tell me that it didn't come straight from the depths of hell." I took both his hands into my own. He nodded sarcastically, _'totally from the depths of hell, Jean.'_

Ymir came with our drinks not too long after that, "black coffee and tea with a shit-ton of sugar."

Marco smiled at her and nodded whereas I eyed my coffee skeptically. "Is there salt in here or did you spit in it."

Ymir placed her hand on her chest and stared at me with her large brown eyes. "I'm your friend Jean, I'd never do something like that."

I cocked a brow at her which caused her to laugh, "you know me too well, Johnny." She ruffled my hair. "I didn't do anything to it this time, honest." She continued to laugh as she walked away.

Marco smiled at me, taking a sip of his tea. He scrunched up his nose and made the best disgusted face he could.

"Salt?" I asked.

He smiled and typed: **Kidding, it's fine.**

"That was a dick move, Marco!" I squinted at him and took a sip of my coffee. It tasted wretched. I spit it back into the cup, gagging slightly There might not have been salt in Marco's but there was fucking salt in mine!

"Oh, that bitch." I pushed the cup away, "I'll be right back, yeah?"

As I stood Marco grabbed the fabric of my sweater and brought me down into a kiss.

Quickly he typed: **You're hot when you're out to get revenge. **

I flushed from my cheeks down to my neck muttering out, "yeah, y-you too." Marco giggled and I mentally kicked myself for saying something so stupid. Ymir's laughter snapped me back into reality, "right, I've gotta go beat my friend down." I smirked and gently poked his nose before turning on my heel, "Ymir, you ready to get your ass handed to you?"

She smirked back at me, "If you're suggesting we play COD then you'd best be ready to get yours handed to you."

"I was thinking Mario Kart, but if Call of Duty is more your thing..."

"No Jean, Mario Kart is fine, either way I'm going to win."

"Oh, you're so fucking on."

"I'll call Sash, she can ref the match and everything."

"What are we back in high school?" I tilted my head.

"We're playing Mario Kart instead of punching each other, we might as well be."

"Alright, you're on." I smirked, "teaches you not to put salt in a man's coffee."

Ymir rolled her eyes and waved me off. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

Marco was giggling when I came back to sit with him. **You just challenged Ymir to a game of Mario-Kart because she put salt in your coffee. You're so weird!**

"She had it coming," I said this as if it was the most obvious thing on the planet.

**You could have just asked her to make you another.**

"That's not how it works."

**I don't know you.**

I laughed and leaned across the table to kiss him. "You do so know me." I muttered, connecting our lips.

Mario Kart, Ymir and Marco, what a way to start the month of October.


	13. Thirteen: Loser Of The Year

_L__ate chapter is late yup yup. Really guys, I'm sorry that this is late. I honestly just didn't feel like writing last week. Anyway so I guess this is just a chapter about Ymir, Jean and Sasha being nerds and battling over Mario Kart, I don't know the idea seemed cute in my mind._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people, things or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_P.S. I tried my hardest to research Mario Kart because I've never actually played it, so please correct me if I got any facts about the game wrong._

_P.P.S. Lots of dialogue in this chapter, hope that's okay._

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><p><strong>Thirteen: Loser Of The Year<strong>

"You cheated, you heartless bitch!" I groaned out, crossing my arms over my chest and frowning.

"I didn't cheat, you just suck ass at video games." Ymir quipped back under her breath.

It was nine o'clock, Sasha, Ymir, Christa, Marco and I were sat on my living room floor playing Mario Kart. I was supposed to be teaching Ymir a lesson about putting salt in my coffee, but every time she challenged me to a track, she kicked my ass. Sasha being our referee was keeping track of all our points, Ymir's side of the scoreboard had fifteen tally marks on it whereas mine had zero.

"C'mon," Sasha smiled, ruffling my hair, "it's only Mario Kart, and we can't all be winners."

"You're a big help Sash, thanks." I muttered sarcastically, placing my Wiimote down in defeat.

"Aww Jean, don't act so defeated. We still love you loserishness and all, right Marco?" Said freckled male perked, up smiling brightly. He nodded his head vigorously, his facial expression saying something along the lines of '_he might be the biggest loser in the world, but he's still mine.' _

Suddenly finding an interest in our conversation, Ymir rested her chin on my shoulder smugly. "Love won't stop me from kicking your ass virtually, Johnny-boy."

"Shut up, I came in second." I retorted, knitting my brow in the most grumpy look I could muster.

Ymir smirked, "let me tell you a secret. When you've only got two people playing a game, second place is last place."

I glared at Ymir trying to think up a witty comeback but instead stuttering pitifully and grumbling out, "Oh yeah, well I challenge you to one more race before we call it a night,"

"You. Me. Rainbow Road. Winner take all." Ymir narrowed her dark brown eyes fiercely at me.

"You're on." I hissed through gritted teeth, moving to pick up my controller.

I picked Bowser as my character, she picked Luigi. We were set to go. As we raced around Rainbow Road she got all the power ups and all the blue shells. I repeatedly cursed Ymir and her choice of fucking green Mario. At the end of our race, as expected I came out on the bottom.

"Suck it, Kir-" I hit Ymir straight in the face with a couch cushion as Sasha marked another point on Ymir's side of the score board. I took a defeated sip of my coke.

"I totally thought you had her beat for a moment there." Sasha lied encouragingly.

"You, Madame, are a horrendous liar." I pointed my coke in her direction, swishing the remaining sugary liquid around the bottom of the can.

"And you, sir, are one sore assed loser," the cushion I'd thrown at Ymir was thrown back onto the couch where it sat looking disheveled.

"I'm not a sore loser, you're just a dick when you win." I turned to look at Ymir who was giving me one of her sassy all knowing looks.

"I know one when I see one, Jean." She opened her mouth to continue, only to get side tracked when her eyes landed on my wall clock. "Fuck look at that, it's almost quarter to ten, I've got class tomorrow."

"Since when has something like class in the morning ever stopped you from taking an opportunity to chew me out?" I asked.

"Since like five seconds ago," Ymir stood, making her way for the door, Christa at her heel. Just before leaving my apartment she turned to face me.

"By the way, I don't believe I learned my lesson. Enjoy your coffee, Jean." She waved before slipping out the door.

I inhaled sharply, "well goddamn it."

Sasha chuckled to herself, standing as she did so. "I've got classes in the morning too," she smiled, "take care of the loser over night for me, would ya Marco?"

"Don't tell my boyfriend what to do," I yelled as Marco nodded to let her know he would indeed take care of me.

Sasha smiled, adjusting her ponytail. "See ya, boys."

And just like that, for the first time that evening, we were alone together. I exhaled loudly, smiling over at him.

"That definitely could have went better." I stated, moving to turn off the Wii.

**You think?** Marco typed quickly.

"Yeah. How many times did Ymir beat me anyway?"

He shrugged, **I stopped counting.**

"Gee, what a supportive boyfriend I have." I placed my hands on my hips and scowled jokingly. Marco smiled and scooted closer to me. He wrapped his long arms around my shoulders, kissing my cheek gently.

"If this is an apology, I accept it," turning my head slightly, I captured his lips with my own. I felt him smile as I gripped his waist tightly. After a few moments, I pulled away, panting slightly.

"Would it kill the mood if I challenged you to one last round of Mario Kart?"

Marco giggled slightly.** The mood was dead and gone to begin with, so I accept your challenge.**

"Whatever freckles, you're on." I threw a Wiimote in his direction as I picked up my own.

I very well might suck at video games, but when I was being beaten at them by Marco, I really didn't mind. When Ymir would win and celebrate, it was infuriating, when Marco won and celebrated it was adorable.

In the end, he obviously won and being completely honest, I was still a bit of a sore loser. He made it up to me when he subjected me to another enjoyable game in the bedroom afterwards though.

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><p><em>Note: I might (or might not) be getting an AO3 account soon, and if I do get on I will be uploading this story over there too. I'm only saying this so that people don't think someone is stealing my story and uploading it in other places or whatever. You guys understand. Thank you.<em>


	14. Fourteen: Halloween

_I__t's official guys, I'll Write If You'll Listen is being uploaded on ArchiveOfOurOwn as well as on here! Yay?_

_Anyway, I feel a little weird writing about Halloween in April, but I think everyone could use a little Halloween spirit in their lives regardless of what month it is. _

_Also if you're not a whovian and aren't getting the references in this chapter, I apologize. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people, places or things used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_P.S. I totally didn't mean to not upload last week, it just kind of happened by accident. I'm so sorry!_

_P.P.S When Jean and Marco are texting I wrote everything properly because I hate text talk._

_Note: Levi is in this chapter so here are the translations of what he's saying if you're having trouble understanding. _

_1. It's 2. Ass-hat 3. Scared_

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><p><strong>Fourteen: Halloween<strong>

Halloween. The one night of the year where you can dress up and beg strangers for food, totally sounds like a blast right? Wrong. Halloween fucking blows and I'm not just saying that because I'm a crotchety twenty year old now. I never really liked Halloween, even as a kid, which I know is totally weird. Candy and dressing up all in one night should have been any normal kids wet dream, it just wasn't mine.

I thought about all this as I straightened my tie in the mirror. Eren with his cunning skills, Sasha with her convincing powers, Levi with his death glares and Marco with his sweet puppy dog eyes, had roped me into going to some kind of stupid Halloween party that required me to wear a costume. Stupid Jaeger and his stupid parties. In the end I had chosen to dress up as the T.A.R.D.I.S. Marco was dressed as my Doctor and Sasha as his Clara. Even if I didn't like Halloween, I had to admit our costume choices were bad ass.

"How many times are you going to straighten that stupid tie, Jean? Connie, Marco and I are waiting for you." Sasha placed her hands on her hips, flipping her loose shoulder-length hair over her shoulder.

"As many times as I please, Oswald." I replied, straightening my tie once more, mostly to annoy her.

"Oh, screw off and hurry up." She punched my shoulder and walked back down the hallway to where the others were waiting. I followed after her, but not before I sneaked a small glance at myself in the mirror and fixed my blue tie one last time.

As I walked into my living room with my newly perfected tie I was greeted by, what I swear to god, was the most adorable sight ever. Marco was sat on my sofa, clad in brown slacks, a checkered dress shirt, a tweed jacket, red suspenders and a bow tie. A bow tie. Marco was just the sweetest thing ever.

I didn't really notice how long I was staring at the adorable sight that was my boyfriend until Connie placed a hand on my shoulder and said, "come on, quit nerdgasming over Marco, we have a party to get to."

I blushed and smacked his hand off my shoulder, muttering about how I was NOT nerdgasming over Marco and how I was simply admiring how cute he was in a goddamn bow tie. Said freckled boyfriend who'd obviously been listening in on the conversation, placed his arm around my shoulder and smiled. **You look great, Jean.**

"You look better, baby." I whispered, kissing him chastely. "Wearing an outfit like that makes me really want to see that sonic screwdriver of yours." I winked at him suggestively which got me a smack on the shoulder. He gave me a look that said _'Oh my god, I don't know you' _as his freckled cheeks noticeably flushed.

I apologized which caused Marco and I to have some sort of meaningful, loving staring contest with one another.

"Come now, boys, enough staring. We've got a party to attend." Sasha stated once again, wrapping her slender arms around Marco and I, leading us out of my apartment.

The four of us walked through Trost towards out destination doing our best to avoid the children racing each other up and down the streets.

"This really brings me back" Sasha spoke dreamily as she walked.

"I know. We were like bosses at trick or treating. No kids on the block got as much candy as Sasha and I." Connie bragged, pulling her closer to him.

"You know it, my best spud." She jabbed him gently in the ribs.

For the remainder of our walk, Marco and I silently listened to our friends ramble on about Halloween, food and the 'best spuds' friendship code. The two were about to start placing bets on which kid on the street would end up with the most candy as we walked up to Eren's front door. I went to knock but the door swung open, revealing Levi who wore his normal scowl.

"It'th you four. Jaeger, they're here." He drawled, sauntering back into Eren's house. "Come in." He added turning ever so slightly.

I cocked an eyebrow, but followed him into the house nonetheless. He lead the four of us into Eren's living room where everyone (who'd shown up) seemed to be situated. I recognized a majority of the people in the room, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Christa, Armin, Mikasa, Ymir and Armin's stud muffin, thick eyebrowed boyfriend Erwin were among those people.

Ymir took a sip from her beer can, smiling. "The Doctor, The T.A.R.D.I.S, Clara and... Baldy are you even dressed up?"

"I was supposed to be a K-9...-" Connie trailed off and scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, keep up the wibbly-wobbly spirit then." She raised her can in our direction before going back to whatever conversation she'd been a part of prior to speaking with us.

Eren took this as a chance to finally come bounding down his large staircase, "hey guys, I was starting to think you weren't going to show." He had a large smile plastered over his face.

"Yeah, sorry we were late. Jean here kept stalling." Sasha glared daggers at me semi-jokingly.

"Stalling, that's very like him." Eren muttered sarcastically.

"You're one to talk, ath-hat." Levi called from across the room.

"Levi," He whined, "you're supposed to back me up!"

"Quite the boyfriend you've got there." I pointed out.

"Shut up, we can't all have a freckled Jesus in our beds now, Jean." Eren quipped, leaving the conversation to go to the other side of the room with Levi. I shook my head in confusion as I watched him go. Freckled Jesus, now that was a new one.

The party was fairly mellow from then on, there was some drinking and some other stuff going on, but the general mood of the celebration was calm. That is it was calm until Eren announced that it was time to watch some kind of shitty gore fest horror film.

Now look, I'm not a chicken shit when it comes to horror or anything. I'm a chicken shit when it comes to gore. Jump scares? Fine, whatever. Severed organs? Not whatever, not fine, I think I'm literally dying!

"Can't we watch something else?" I'd protested.

"Are the thcared, Kirth...Kretch..." Levi let out a frustrated groan, "Jean?"

Swallowing whatever pride I had at that moment, I nodded. "Yes, yes I fucking am."

"C'mon man," Ymir piped up, "it ain't that bad, and if worse comes to worse you can hold Marco."

Marco wrapped an arm around my waist to prove her point. **I'll hold you, don't worry.**

"You'd better," I whispered, guiding him to the nearest armchair to cuddle when the movie started.

I honestly didn't pay much attention to the movie as it played, I mostly just played with Marco's suspenders as bloodcurdling screeches reached my ears. At one point I got bored and started texting him.

**To: Marco- What's going on in the movie? **

**From: Marco- A beating heart just landed on a guy, that's some Oscar worthy acting right there. **

**To: Marco- Nasty!**

**From: Marco- Yeah. I was thinking about heading out of here soon to get some food or something.**

**To: Marco- We haven't been here all that long though...**

**From: Marco- You didn't want to come in the first place.**

**To: Marco- Point taken. Let's split then.**

**From: Marco: Okay.**

I stood, slipping my phone back into my pocket. All of the sets of eyes in the room turned towards me, except for Armin's because his face was buried in Erwin's chest.

"So uhmmm, Marco and I are gonna head out, thanks for having us."

Eren smirked, "can't you wait 'til the end of the film?"

My eyes slid over to the gore fest on the screen. I shivered. "No."

"Alright then, see ya horse-face."

I waved slightly as I got an unenthusiastic chorus of farewells. I said goodbye before I wrapped my arm around Marco's waist and guided him towards Eren's front door and out it.

"Pizza and a Tim Burton marathon at my place?" I asked as we stepped into the night air.

Marco smiled and typed: **You just know the way to my heart, don't you?**

"I guess I do," I said, leaning in to kiss his cheek.

He hummed quietly, **I love you.**

"I love you more,"

**Can we watch The Corpse Bride first?**

I laughed, "whatever you want, baby."


	15. Chapter Fifteen: Sign Language Classes

_H__ey __guys, I'm going to be flat out honest when I say that there's no real reason that this chapter is late other than my laziness. So, yeah I'm sorry about my lateness and I'm just going to jump straight into the chapter._

_Actually before I jump into the chapter I have an announcement to make! I'll Write If You'll Listen is going to be translated into French soon! Everything is going to be translated and uploaded by the wonderful I am your Absolute Princess. Okay now I'm going to get on with the chapter!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_P.S. I've been learning little bits of sign language from a friend, but I can't guarantee that they are one hundred percent correct._

_P.P.S. I ship Hange and Petra so hard and they don't get enough love, so I had to put them into this chapter!_

_Translation for what Jean was saying in French: Hello, my name is Jean and you have a nice face. Yes. (Please correct me in I'm wrong, I might be Canadian but that doesn't mean I know French all that well. I'm sorry!)_

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><p><strong>Fifteen: Sign Language Classes<strong>

Thursday nights were sign language nights; they actually had been for a while now. From eight to nine at the Trost community center I took a one on one class to learn how to sign. I was still learning some fairly basic stuff but even so I had to admit it was hard work, getting through the alphabet without my arm going numb was a real challenge most days. Regardless of numb arms or achy shoulders, I was in this for Marco so I was in it until the end.

"Okay, Jean, I'm trusting that you reviewed the homework I gave you." Ms. Ral (who always insisted I call her Petra since Ms. Ral sounded too formal) smiled at me and raised her right hand.

"I had homework?" I asked jokingly as I raised my hand, squeezing it into a fist with my thumb resting on the outside of my pointer finger.** A**. She gave me a look, extending her four fingers with her thumb crossed over her palm. **B**. I stayed silent as I curved my hand into a C shape. **C**.

Twenty-five letters later, Petra and I were grinning at each other. "You're getting so good, Jean. I'm so proud of you!"

"Thanks, Petra. I just hope I don't fuck up in front of my boyfriend." I muttered dropping my eyes to the floor.

"Come now, everything's going to be fine," Petra smiled and placed her hand on top of mine. "And anyway, you've got so much more to learn, so you've got a lot of time to think about what you're going to sign for him."

"You're right. It's still nerve-racking though." I scratched the back of my neck, blushing slightly.

She laughed, "tell me about it. My partner Hange teaches a class here too, she teaches Latin. But anyway after about like a month of crushing over her, I finally went to ask her out and I thought it would be cute and smart to do it in Latin, let's just say I didn't know the language as well as I thought I did. So she was totally confused and I was totally embarrassed and nervous but I guess my point somehow got across eventually."

"Oh my god, what did you say to her?"

"Lord knows," Petra sighed, "but I guess it couldn't have been too offensive since we're still together today." She laughed again. "Anyway you're not paying for me to ramble on about my girlfriend, let's get back to our lesson."

I nodded, though I would have been perfectly fine with hearing her talk about her girlfriend all class. Petra was one of those people who were just really easy to talk to and I liked that about her. On the other hand she was right, I was paying for sign language classes so it would be best if I learned some sign language within an hour.

An hour passed by quicker than you'd think. I got to learn some new signs and practice some old ones though. It was surprisingly fun, as it always was.

"Alrighty then, Jean, you're free to go. But I must say that we had an awesome class today. You've really come a long way! When you show off your skills to…oh what's his name... Marco?"

I nodded, simultaneously telling her she was correct and that she should keep going.

"Right, when you show him how much practice you've put into this, he'll be so proud of you. He'll be at a loss as to what to sign back to you."

"Thanks Petra, it means a lot." I was more than slightly flustered as I spoke.

"It's my pleasure." She gave me a swift pat on the back. "So, I'll see you next Thursday, right?"

"Yeah, of course." I smiled moving towards the exit. "Thanks for the class."

"Once again, it was my pleasure, Jean. Have a good night." Petra waved.

"You too," I said, waving slightly before taking my leave. I began weaving my way through the community center's grey halls as I sent Marco a text.

**To: Marco- You busy?**

He replied back by the time I reached a large glass double doors that lead to the outdoor world.

**From: Marco- Nah, I'm not busy. I am in a cuddling mood if you'd like to come over.**

**To: Marco- If you get some blankets warmed up for the two of us then I'll be there in like five minutes.**

**From: Marco- I'm already wrapped in some blankets, so I think there warm enough as is.**

Not bothering to text back, I walked as quickly as my gangly legs would carry me towards Marco's apartment. When I got there I let myself in with the spare key that was hidden in the potted plant by his door.

"I'm home!" I yelled, kicking off my shoes while shrugging my coat down my shoulders. Marco smiled at me as he peaked through a mound of blankets on the sofa. I smiled gently back at him, moving to join him in the mess of blankets.

"Hello, beautiful." I cooed, kissing him gently on the nose, "how was your day?"

Marco shrugged, digging around in the blankets for his phone. **Lazy, how was yours?**

"Unproductive." I lied. "I had a French test, though."

**Oh did you now? Speak some French for me then.**

I groaned, "uhmmm...okay. Bonjour je m'appelle Jean et tu a un bon visage...uhmmm oui." I racked my brain for something else to say. "Uhhh, was that even slightly sexy?"

Marco giggled. **Yeah, it was just a little bit sexy.** He pulled me into a chaste kiss using the strings of my sweater to pull me forward.

"I guess I should speak other languages more often then, shouldn't I?" I asked against his lips as I quietly thought about showing off my sign language skills to him at some point in the near future.


	16. Sixteen: The First Time In Two Years

_O__kay, so this is probably my favourite chapter so far. It's kind of emotional, kind of fluffy and has lots of back story. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Also, I would like to apologize for the little bits of homophobic language. I contemplated not putting them in but I thought they'd add to the chapters emotional level._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy!_

**_I'll Write If You'll Listen is now being uploaded in French, so if you'd like to go check that out go visit I am your Absolute Princess._**

_Note: Okay, so I've officially decided that Trost is in New York. I decided this because back in one of the earlier chapters I stated that Marco was from Oregon, but in this chapter I mentioned he lived in Jinae. So basically Jinae is a city in Oregon. So I decided to make Trost a city in New York. That's all, on with the chapter._

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><p><strong>Sixteen: The First Time In Two Years<strong>

Temporarily blinding sunlight filtered through my blinds as I woke up. Groaning loudly in annoyance, I pulled myself into a sitting position. Curses to the sun, always waking me up at stupid times. Curses.

I sighed and stretched. Even with my brain still half asleep, I noticed Marco being to stir. At the same time I noticed an unfitting Fall Out Boy song was playing to my right.

_'Dance, Dance! We're falling apart to halftime. Dance, Dance! And these are the lives you-'_

'Phone,' I thought lazily, reaching out to grab it from my nightstand. As I answered the call I glanced over at Marco, who was now fully awake. I smiled and mouthed the words _'good morning, babe.'_

"Hello."

"Uhmm... hello. Who is this?" I sat up straight, all signs of my previous drowsiness were gone.

The voice on the other end of the line scoffed, "shouldn't you recognize the voice of your own mother?"

I froze. My mother? "We..." I paused to lick my dry lips, "we haven't spoken since I came out. W-why are you calling me now?"

"It's not like it was my choice." My mother spoke as if this should be obvious, "father has fallen ill and I've been forced to tell everyone on both sides of our family to alert them of this. Not that you really count as family anymore."

"Oh, so you're really just calling as an excuse to throw slurs at me._ Oh your fathers sick and I forgot to mention: you're a faggot._ Real pick me up mom, let's go back to not talking to each other."

"This sickness is no joke. Also, it's not like it's my fault you're gay. You had potential, Jean but then you went and turned yourself gay. Or maybe it was that fucking lesbian you hung out with in high school. Either way, you are a virus. The scum on this Earth. You have not been and never will be a son of mine."

"Okay, first off, fuck you." My voice cracked. "Secondly, don't you dare bring Ymir into any of this. Thirdly I didn't turn gay, I've always been gay. Fourthly, I don't want to be the son of an old hag like you. Fifthly, I hope that dad will be okay and I hope he and you can live out the rest of your pitiful sour lives together in peaceful bliss, pretending your queer son doesn't even exist." I ended the call, throwing my phone down on the bed angrily.

Marco, who'd heard everything (or at least what I said) wrapped an arm around me. **Talk to me, Jean. Please.**

I shook my head and turned away from Marco, "there's nothing to talk about." I whispered stubbornly. "My dad's sick and my mom called to tell me. That's normal right? We haven't talked in two god damn years, I'd almost forgotten about their hatred for me." I laughed bitterly, "one phone call reminded me of everything." I bit my lip and shook my head.

Marco typed as quickly as he could. **They don't matter though, Jean. I've learned over time that you just have to block everyone out who's bad and focus on the people that love you. Ymir and Sasha and all your friends, including Eren love you. I love you. **

"It's easier said than done, Marco. I know you've been bullied before but not by the people who are supposed to support you and care for you the most!" I opened my mouth to add more but I decided against it, knowing I would say something I'd regret.

"I'm sorry," I shook my head, "you're right."

Marco reached forward and wiped a trail of tears off my cheek. I hadn't even noticed I was crying. It's okay.** It's just you and me now, right?**

"Yeah, it's just you and me." I leaned towards Marco, resting my head on his bare chest where I could faintly hear his heartbeat. I stayed like that for a moment or two before quietly asking, "do you wanna know the story?"

**What Story?** He gave me a curious look.

"My coming out story."

**If you want to tell me, I'll listen.**

I nodded, "I'll tell you. So everything started when I was sixteen. You see, I always knew I liked boys but I never really realized I'd have to tell people until I started dating Eren.

"So after about a month of dating him in secret, I couldn't take it any longer. I needed to tell someone I was gay because being in the closet was killing me. Of course I chose to tell Sasha and Ymir first, so I practiced what I was going to say and then I called them over to my place.

"I think they both new something was up with me that night so when I finally did my speech and told them I was gay they weren't too surprised. Either way Sasha cried, hugged me and told me over and over how proud she was of me. Ymir on the other hand told me she already knew because she'd caught me mooning over guys like millions of times.

"So anyway, I told the girls and that was good for the time being. I didn't tell my mom and dad until I was eighteen and when I did I just kinda blurted it out. One night at the supper table my parents were asking me if I had any lady friends and in the spur of the moment I was just like fuck it, I'm gay. My mom was shocked and my dad literally turned crimson. He actually attempted to hit me once before telling me to get the fuck out of his house. I packed some things before I left them and that was that.

"I didn't talk to them any more. I stayed at Ymir's place for some time after that. It was also around this time that Eren and I started fighting a lot and we broke up like a month after, but that doesn't matter. So... yeah. That was my coming out story." I took a deep breath, "Do you want to share yours."

**Sure, I'll tell you. You'll have to wait for me to type everything out though!**

"I can wait." I sighed curling up at his side as he typed. I feel like I might have dozed off since I don't really remember waiting for him to type anything. I just remember being handed his phone to read what he had to tell.

**Okay so I guess my story starts on a sunny day in Jinae. My dad and I were out on a walk for whatever reason-I was probably stressed because of exams or something. But anyway as we walked my dad kind of brought up the idea of me having a girlfriend.**

**He'd asked me if I had one. No. Or if I wanted one. Still no. So he dropped the question and we kept on walking. Eventually we sat down on some bench in a park. He took both my hands into his, looked me in the eye and asked, 'Would you want a boyfriend, Marco?"**

**I nodded to say yes, since he kept holding both my hands. Tears came to his eyes and I kind of thought that he might kick me out, but he pulled me into a hug and told me he couldn't be more proud. I was relieved, so I started crying too. In the end we just kind of sobbed into each others shoulders for a while. **

**So that was how I came out to my dad, or I guess it's more how he made me come out. But anyway he was the first to know and I was content with that. I told my friend Mina a couple weeks later and she'd tackled me onto the ground in happiness… or something like that. Eventually most people found out in their own right, but they're still not as important.**

**That's my story, it's still not as sad and exciting as yours but c'est la vie, right?**

I handed him his phone when I was finished reading. "I like your story a lot more than mine. It's got a happier ending." I smiled at him solemnly.

**Come on, Jean, don't live in the past forever. You and I could start a new story. One with a happier ending. **

"I like that idea, but how so?"

Marco smiled shyly.** I don't know. You could start by meeting my family. My dad invited me to thanksgiving dinner back in Oregon and I thought it might be fun if you and I rented a car and went. It'll be a long road trip, but you'll get food out of it.**

I got nervous at the thought of meeting Marco's family. One million 'what if's' ran through my head. What if...what if...WHAT IF?

Marco gave me a sweet and hopeful look, so I sighed quietly and nodded. "It'll be a long assed road trip but I guess we could do it..."

Marco squeezed me tightly. **Thank you so much, Jean! You're literally the best. **

"I know I am." I joked. "We'll work out the details later though, yeah? I'm starving."

**Yeah, me too. I'd offer to cook, but since I'm a college student I don't believe I'm aloud.**

I hummed slightly, kissing his nose. "Nah, you're not aloud, so let's go to Starbucks instead."

**Okay, let's go, but you sure are chipper right now, Jean. Are you sure you're okay after what happened?**

I stopped for a moment to think. I honestly was still a little shaken up but I couldn't let that consume my life. "No. I'm…I'm okay. You said yourself that I shouldn't dwell in the past, so I'm not going to."

Marco eyed me, eventually his features softened. **Alright then, whatever you say I believe. Now let's go get you some coffee, wonder-boy. **

Coffee and a Saturday spent with Marco, now that was worth more than any homophobic parent of mine.


	17. Seventeen: Just You and Me

_L__ate chapter is late. Short chapter is short. Filler chapter is also a filler. Haha, okay, so it's been brought to my attention that I might (or might not) write too many fillers. What do all of you think? I personally like fillers because they put in a little bit of fluff before big points in the story happen (in this case Thanksgiving). So yeah, some feedback about fillers would be very helpful. Anyway enough rambling from me, I'm going to get on with it._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_Note: I know this chapter is short and I swear it wasn't supposed to be. As I was finishing up writing it, I kind of realized that I couldn't really make it longer without dragging it out. So anyway next chapter will make up for this one I promise, it will be about Thanksgiving so it will definitely be quite a bit longer than this one. Thank you for reading this, and again I apologize for the shortness of this chapter!_

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><p><strong>Seventeen: Just You and Me<strong>

During the days after my mother had contacted me, Marco stayed by me as much as possible. He stayed at my apartment so often that he'd given up going back to his own place and had simply brought a suitcase full of clothes and toiletries to mine.

Anyone could tell he was nervous about my family calling back (or worse), so I constantly reassured him that everything was okay and that I was absolutely fine. I've got to be completely honest when I say that I really didn't mind the extra attention from Marco, though. All the cuddle time I had with him since he was staying over was certainly very nice.

Speaking of cuddling with Marco, that's exactly what he and I were doing on a particular Thursday night. He and I had taken about half an hour to build a blanket fort using all of my sheets and comforters, some chairs, and my living room furniture. Whatever leftover blankets we had were placed inside the fort along with whatever kind of sweets I had laying around my apartment.

Once we were certain the fort wouldn't collapse in on us, we crawled inside. It was cozy and just the perfect size for two. I loved it.

"I guess all our hard work really paid off." I stated quietly, resting my cheek on my hand.

Marco nodded, resting his own hand on his cheek in a mock of the position I was in.

"You know, I can't snuggle with you when you're in that position." I pointed out, matter-of-factly.

He shrugged, looking at me through long lashes. His expression said something along the lines of _'If it's that concerning move around and make it work.'_

I heaved a sigh and muttered about how big a help my boyfriend was as I moved myself around. Adjusting my limbs took some persistence but eventually I found myself in a somewhat (somewhat meaning my legs had yet to fall asleep) comfortable position around Marco.

"Good?" I questioned.

A nod, a smile and a thumbs up was my answer.

I nodded back, "good."

Together, we fell into a comfortable silence after that. I guess we were just taking a moment to take in one another. Silence. Warmth. Love. Freckles. Perfection... god I'm a sap.

It didn't take long for he and I to begin idly kissing as we lay there under out canopy our blankets, semi-tangled in each other's limbs. I was sure as hell having a wonderful time. Marco, warmth and a freaking blanket fort. Someone pinch me, this is so fucking perfect! Like seriously, we needed to do this more often.

Slowly, I began getting completely lost in the warmth of the blankets and my own thoughts. I guess I was thinking so hard that I didn't realize how drowsy I felt, or how heavy my eyelids had been getting. I honestly didn't even realize I'd nodded off until I was woken up the next morning with my face buried into Marco's shoulder.

"Fuck, when did I fall asleep?" I croaked moving away from his freckled shoulder.

Said owner of the freckled shoulder passed me his phone. **Hours ago. You were drooling by the way.**

I felt my cheeks flare up as I moved my hand to wipe my mouth, "shut up." I muttered making sure the area around my mouth was dry. "Anyway," I pouted changing the subject, "I wish I didn't fall asleep so early. I wanted to tell secrets and then we could have had some freaking sweet sex inside our blanket fort."

**Oh god, Jean...**

"Don't try and tell me you weren't thinking about it too, you kinky jerk." I narrowed my eyes at Marco.

**I am not admitting to anything.** Marco shook his head. **I mean, if you happen to still be offering I'm not going to say no, though...**

"Oh?" I smirked, pulling his body flush against mine. "And if I were still offering, how many rounds?" I purred.

**Keep talking like that and I'll go for as long as you want. **

I raised an eyebrow, "wow, sounds like someone's thirsty."

**I'm the thirsty one? Seriously darling, take a long hard look in the mirror. And anyway I'm not interested in that offer of yours anymore. **He bit his lip, frowning at me.

"What, Marco!" I pouted, "I didn't mean it you're not thirsty! Please don't waist this opportunity, baby. I mean...blanket fort…" my voice cracked and I blushed.

Marco stopped biting his lip and giggled. **I was kidding, you dork.**

"Marco don't kid about stuff like that. My life literally flashed before my eyes."

Marco giggled even more, pulling me into a deep kiss. And let's just say, after that that kiss lead to exactly what I'd wanted.


	18. Eighteen: Thanksgiving

_H__ello everyone! It's time for Thanksgiving with the Bodt family! I'm being completely honest when I say that I almost skipped over Thanksgiving in this story. You see I'm Canadian so after I wrote the Halloween chapter I was all like 'cool no holidays until Christmas... Oh shit American Thanksgiving. ' So, yeah sorry for almost forgetting._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

**_Important Note: So I was having some big issues with finding out the amount of travel time between Organ and New York. I was told a week, then I was told a day and then I was told four days and then I stared at a map and tried to do the math on my own-but I'm not good at math you see. Anyway, in the story I went with three days of traveling. It seems in the middle of all the jumbled answers I got. So I seriously apologize if that timing is off. I tried to do my research, but as a Canadian who's never been to America I don't think I got anywhere. Again, I apologize._**

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><p><strong>Eighteen: Thanksgiving<strong>

Trost to Jinae. New York to Oregon. I don't know if either of these places are of any significance to you, but Marco and I had to travel between these states for Thanksgiving. Our trip from point A to point B was going to take us approximately three days of traveling.

The thought of the trip was exciting but still, I have to be completely honest when I say that I was more than slightly nervous about it. Not only was I going to be alone on the road with Marco, but I was also on my way to meeting his family. And by family I don't just mean his father, I mean basically his whole family. Apparently all the Bodt's stop by for Thanksgiving. Cousins, aunts, uncles; you name it. I was definitely more than slightly nervous, but all my feelings aside I had to put on my 'brave pants' for my boyfriend, if he wanted me to meet his family, then that was what I was going to do.

I quietly thought about my 'brave pants' as I stood at Marco's fathers doorstep. I was nervous and I was tired from travelling. So in general I just wasn't in a very good mood and I certainly was in no position for making a good first impression.

Marco gently squeezed my hand for reassurance as the large wooden door opened inward on it's hinges.

"Marco! My boy!" A booming voice called before the door was even fully open. A larger balding man engulfed said boy in his arms. "I've missed you very much, young man. You must send me E-mails more often."

Marco smiled brightly, signing as he did so. He said something along the lines of _'It's nice to see you too and I would E-mail more if you turned on your laptop more than once a week.'_

The large man (who I have inferred is Marco's father) smiled at his son as pulled him into a noogie. "Ahhh, I'm old now, I don't know what a laptop is!" The mans eyes flicked towards me. He let go of his son, standing straight.

"And who might you be, young man?"

I stuck out my hand "I'm J-Jean Kirschtein." Stuttering out my own name. Nailed it. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Bodt."

"Oh, Mr Kirschtein. I know very well who you are." Marco's father crossed his thick arms over his chest in an insanely intimidating way.

"You... you do,...sir?" I squeaked, shrinking back slightly.

"Yes I do. You are the boyfriend of my young Marco." He furrowed his large salt and pepper eyebrows. "And I've just got to say, Marco's told me a lot a about you and you seem like a fine young lad. Welcome to the family!" The man opened his arms and smiled welcomingly towards me.

Completely confused, I awkwardly walked into the embrace.

"I'm sorry if I scared you." Mr. Bodt added as more of an after thought, "I just wanted to see your reaction."

"You got me for a sec there," I chuckled, sneaking a glance in my boyfriends direction. He was grinning towards his father and I. I grinned back.

So maybe my first impression hadn't turned out as bad as it could have. Mr. Bodt didn't hate me yet, so I was set on a good track for now.

* * *

><p>Over the next two days I began growing closer to Mr. Bodt (he insisted that I called him Caleb), he was basically just an older version of Marco, so establishing a semi-awkward friendship with him wasn't hard.<p>

Also, during these two days, I met over half of Marco's family. I met more aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents then I'd care to admit. Not that I wasn't happy to be meeting my boyfriends family, because really I was, I just didn't see a point in meeting his aunts third cousin twice removed (I mean like, he doesn't even know who they are and he's related to them.)

Needless to say, Marco and I were freaking exhausted and Thanksgiving had yet to happen._

Marco and I were laying on his bed the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It was late, but he and I hadn't gotten to talk much during the day so this seemed like our golden opportunity.

**Dad seems to like you, Jean. **

"Does he?" I asked even though I kind of already knew. "Your dad's really cool Marco. He's exactly the kind of father I wanted."

* * *

><p>Marco frowned in a sympathetic way. <strong>He would probably love to have you as a son.<strong>

I smiled, "you're his son though, and if I were his son too then I couldn't marry you, now could I?"

**Mhhhm, so you want to marry me then? **Marco smiled, the tips of his ears were turning ever so slightly pink.

"I'd love to." I stated, blushing as well. "But right now, I believe we need to get through thanksgiving first."

**Good point. And, by the way, I'm expecting a ring not just a nonchalant question.**

"Ring. Got it." I leaned forward and connected our lips. We broke apart seconds later and I sighed as my train of thought began to wander.

"I wonder if your family likes me, Marco..."

**Don't stress about it, Jean. We know for sure one person likes you.**

"Who would that be now?"

Marco was grinning slyly at me. **Well you seemed to have a princess fawning over you all afternoon.** Marco giggled. **Isabelle couldn't take her eyes off you. I think she's got the hots for you. **

I groaned, "I don't like kids, Marco! And how old is she anyway four?"

**And a half. She's the perfect age for you. I bet she's expecting a ring too.**

"Marco!"

**You're embarrassed, so you**_** DO **_**like my little cousin.**

"Keep this up and we won't have sex until New Year's."

**Like you could last that long without me, you silly goose. **

"You silly goose? This is so weird... I'm going to sleep." I laughed slightly at the pure awkward atmosphere we'd created.

**Alright then. Good night, beautiful. **

"Goodnight, Marco. I love you."

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><p>The next morning I was awoken by the sound of banging on Marco's door.<p>

"Up boys! The family has already started arriving!" Three more bangs continued after that.

Rubbing my eyes, I sat up slowly. A yawn ripped through my throat, "'morning." I muttered.

Marco sighed loudly, attempting for a moment to tame his dark hair which stuck up in random directions. Eventually he gave up and waved at me with one hand while he rubbed the sleep out of his other eye with the opposite.

I leaned over and gently kissed his cheek while I soothed down his wild hair. He smiled at me, letting himself yawn. I kissed his cheek again before murmuring something about getting dressed and meeting his family once more.

Getting out of bed, getting dressed and doing a few other little morning things took the two of us about half an hour. By the time Marco and I had actually made it downstairs most of his family had already arrived.

"Good to see you boys are still living!" Caleb yelled from the kitchen, winking at his son and I.

"'M not sure if I'm alive just yet." I retorted, as I was pulled into a conversation with one of Marco's older aunts.

* * *

><p>I spent the rest of the morning chatting with about one million different people (including young Isabelle). At one it was finally time to eat. The thought of food and getting out of the conversation I was in at the time was a fucking blessing. I was ready to scarf down anything in sight when I sat down at the table but apparently being thankful needed to come first.<p>

By "being thankful" I basically mean we went around the table and everyone said what they were thankful for during the last year. Most people said basic things; I'm thankful for my family, I'm glad I have food and a place to work. However when it came to me, I decided that I might as well embarrass my boyfriend while being thankful.

"Okay... Uhmmm... I guess I'm thankful that all of you are letting me eat at your table this year. If it weren't for the Bodt family, I'd probably be eating delivered pizza right now. This year I am also insanely thankful for my wonderful boyfriend Marco. I don't know where I'd be without him and I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't lean over and kiss him like this-" I turned Marco's head towards me by placing both my hands on either side of his face and kissed him forcefully on the lips.

People around the table 'awed' and whistled. I honestly didn't really care about the reaction from them, at this point I was mainly enjoying myself. I eventually pulled away to let Marco say what he had to.

He was a little red in the face as he signed. His father translated what he was saying for those who couldn't tell on their own.

"Well, that was sure something. I guess this year I'm thankful for the art program I'm in. I am also grateful for Jean, regardless of how embarrassing he is."

Marco turned ever so slightly redder as he signed that last bit. I laughed and gently kissed him on the cheek as the rest of the people sitting at the table said what they had to say.

Finally after that we were allowed to eat, so I stuffed my face because damn everything was so good. If I could eat food like this for the rest of my life I would die an insanely happy man. I mean like the potatoes were worth killing a man for, no joke.

Dessert after the main meal was also worth murdering a man for. I'm not exactly a fan of pie but it was so fucking heavenly. Eating Caleb Bodt's pie is an experience that everyone deserves to try at least once on their lives.

Once I finished my slice of the godly pastry, Marco pulled me aside and rounded up all thirteen of his cousins for their annual game of hide and seek. His seven year old cousin Derek was chosen to be our seeker as the rest of us split off to find our hiding spots.

I was going to find a clever hiding spot with my boyfriend but unfortunately a pair of little hands dragged me elsewhere before I had the chance.

"This closet is a good hiding spot." The owner of the small hands (Isabelle) said far too loudly.

"Keep speaking that loudly and it won't be anymore." I opened the closet door and slipped myself inside once Isabelle was comfortably situated within.

"It's dark!" The young girl practically yelled as she played with her braided dark black hair.

"Yeah it is, smarty-pants." I muttered sarcastically.

"You think I'm smart?" Isabelle noticeably brightened up.

A+ babysitting award goes to me! "Sure, uhmmm... of course." Fuck I suck at this!

"Well, I think that you're handsome. Ya know like a prince."

"Thank you, sweetheart." Fuck, I just called her sweetheart. "You're... pretty cute too. Like a... like a princess."

"Oh John, you're to kind." I chose not to correct her on the pronunciation of my name. "If I'm a princess you could be my-"

"Found you both!" The closet flooded with light when Marco's seven year old cousin yanked the door open and found us.

"Derek you jerk! I was just getting somewhere." Isabelle pouted and crossed her arms.

I bent down and patted her on the head. "You'll get another chance at some point, princess. Anyway I really must be off, I've got to go find my prince now."

* * *

><p>Marco, his thirteen cousins and I played hide and seek until it got dark out and all the Bodt's began heading home. At one point it was just Marco, Derek, Isabelle, Marco's twin cousins Allison and Joanna and I playing. Those games were pretty freaking intense.<p>

Eventually those four cousins headed home also, so it was just my boyfriend and I. We decided to stop playing, so we cuddled on the living room sofa together.

I sighed. "I've never played hide and seek for such a long period of time in my life."

Marco giggled. **You could have stopped playing whenever you wanted to.**

"Dunno if Isabelle woulda let me."

**You called her a pretty princess so you're now bonded to her for life. This is your own fault, not mine.**

"But I've already got a pretty princess in my life!"

Are you referring to me?

"Who else?"

**Oh my god, you're embarrassing!**

"You love me."

**Once again, that's your fault! **

I laughed and kissed him. "What isn't my fault these days?"

He and I continued idly talking for a fair part of the night until we realized how late it was.

**We've got a big trip ahead of us tomorrow, maybe we should get some sleep.**

"Good idea."

He and I fell asleep together on the sofa, still clad in our day clothing with nothing more than a quilt covering the two of us. Sleep, a very good idea indeed.


	19. Nineteen: Road Home

_F__luff, songs and...smut? Boom, chapter summary just for you! Well anyway, a fun little fact about this chapter is that I based Marco leaving his fathers house after how I used to leave my grandparents houses when I was younger (nyahahaha the tears did indeed used to happen). Okay, other than that I don't really have any updates to tell you all about, so I'm just going to get on with this chapter._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_Note: I apologize for the big chunks of song lyrics in the story. They are all in italics if you'd rather not read them._

_Songs Used (all songs belong to their rightful owners):_

_Heaven Knows- Five For Fighting_

_King and Lionheart- Of Monsters and Men_

_Alone Together- Fall Out Boy_

_Modern Love- Matt Nathanson_

_Road To You- Five For Fighting_

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><p><strong>Nineteen: Road Home<strong>

Marco and I were woken up bright and early on Friday by Caleb. He said that we'd better eat before hitting the road and made us both large plates pilled with waffles among other breakfast foods. After eating, I had some packing to finish and after I was done that, it was time to bid our farewells.

Caleb pulled Marco in to a bone crushing hug. "Well, good luck, my boy. Have a safe trip."

Marco smiled at his father, nodding. His dark brown eyes were filling to the brim with tears.

"Don't cry now," tears were gently wiped from his sons cheek, "I'll see you again soon."

He nodded for a second time. He was pitifully sniffling and rubbing his freckled cheeks. Marco was the type of person that no one wanted to see unhappy, so physically seeing tears fall down his face was completely heartbreaking.

Caleb sadly glanced at his son one last time before turning his gaze towards me. "Now then, Mr. Kirschtein. I'm expecting that you will take good care of my boy."

I smiled, "I will, sir."

"You'd better." He joked, pulling me into a tight embrace. "Welcome to the family," he whispered before letting me go.

A few more goodbyes after that, Marco and I were on the road. Music was blaring, the sun was up and we were cruising towards the highway. Everything was going so beautifully, yet Marco was still crying.

I took a moment to right my glasses on my nose before setting my hand on Marco's knee. "Everything's okay, baby. I know that you're going to miss him, I am too, but you'll see your father again real soon. I promise." I soothed.

Marco wiped his puffy eyes with a tissue, silently agreeing with me.

"How 'bout I lighten up the mood for the time being?" I slipped my hand off his knee to turn up the music, "I'll sing for you."

I shuffled my IPod and let whatever song it went onto blare out of the car speakers.

_"There's no time to waste, in this famous goodbye. There's Angels landing on the shore." _I without a doubt butchered all the high notes in the first verse and I was sure I would continue to throughout the song.

I went on with singing throughout the next verse and the chorus, I kept prodding Marco to smile and in the end I got him to during the songs bridge. It was also at this point that he began to hum along with the music.

"That's the attitude I was looking for!" I practically yelled as I started singing the final chorus.

_"Tell me where the good men go. Before I wash away. Walk me down the old brick road, so I can die where I met you. Hold me like we're going home. Turn your tears to rain. Bury me beautiful. Heaven knows how I loved you!"_

I flicked my eyes over towards my travelling partner. I saw that he was smiling, so I went straight into badly singing the next song in the shuffle.

_"Taking over this town they should worry, but these problems aside I think I taught you well..._You'd better be enjoying this Marco, because if I sing any higher I'm almost certain my vocal cords will burst."

He snorted wiping his slightly less reddened eyes as he waved me on. I continued to sing for him and being completely honest, I wasn't doing half bad. That is, my voice wasn't half bad until I reached the line_ 'and in the winter night sky ships are sailing' _because that was when my voice decided to crack...like three times.

"Oh my god," I chuckled, hitting my head gently off the steering wheel. "That didn't just happen."

I moaned pitifully once I realized just how hard Marco was laughing. "Shut up!"

He stopped for a moment only to burst into another fit of giggles.

"Oh my god, you dork." I muttered under my breath. I took a moments consideration before joining in and laughing along with him. At this point I was just happy to see him smiling, I didn't really care that we were laughing at my own failure.

After our laughing fit had finished itself up, Marco leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. I took my eyes off the road for just a moment to look over at him, only to find he'd written me a short message. **Thank you, Jean. I think I've done enough crying for one day.**

"Well if you think so, then okay. I have to say though Marco, seeing you miserable is fucking heartbreaking."

Marco shrugged.** I'm just going to miss him, you know?**

I focused on the road as I nodded. "Yeah, I completely understand the reasoning behind that." I was going to add something but the song that started playing stopped me in my tracks.

"Oh my god, this song is my fucking existence." I not so gently started drumming on the steering wheel as I moved my upper body as best as I could to the beat of the song as I started to sing once again.

_"But I don't think I'm coming home and I said, I'll check in tomorrow if I don't wake up dead. This is the road to ruin and we're starting at the end. __Say yeah! _C'mon man a little more enthusiasm would be great. Fall Out Boy owns a part of my soul here."

He giggled slightly, eventually giving and and moving his body to the music. "That's more like it, baby! _Let's be alone together! Yeah! We could stay young forever! Yeah! We'll stay young, young, young,-"_

He and I grooved to Fall Out Boy in our shitty rented truck for basically a full three minutes. My life was basically complete.

"_This is the road to ruin, and we're starting at the end..." _I took a dramatic breath once the song ended before jokingly yelling, " and the crowd went wild because of the amount of talent in this truck! Raaaaaahh! Raaaaahh!"

Marco shook his head in an endearing way as he picked up my IPod and scrolled through my music. He picked which ever song caught his eye and let it play. He began humming along, letting his eyes fall closed contently.

_'She said this talking kind of wears me out and all these salesmen, baby, make me tired.'_

I took one hand off the steering wheel to rest on top of Marco's as the song played. We hummed along together.

'_This modern love is not enough. She said, watch your back, I'm nobody's girlfriend.'_

It was at the end of the chorus when I realized that Marco wasn't humming anymore because he had actually fallen asleep.

"You fell asleep on me." I stated, turning the music down a notch. I smiled stroking my finger across his cheek before going back to concentrating on the road ahead of me.

As I drove I continued to quietly hum along with Matt Nathanson's voice.

_'Yeah, one exhale never did me no good. Never did me no good-'_

Silence rang out for a few moments until the next song came on. The music played on as I drove and Marco slept.

When it was about half passed noon, I stopped at McHeart-Attacks (Sorry McDonalds) for some lunch. Not too long after that my traveling partner woke up.

"Good afternoon, beautiful! I got you lunch." I passed the fast food bag over to him. He smiled at me in a thankful way as he got down to eating the contents of the bag.

We drove in relative silence until a song (that I hadn't expected to play) played. While the beginning notes played I was brought back to an old memory of the café. Back to one of my rough days that Marco cheered up with dancing and some kisses.

_'I can't believe how I love you. You'll be the last, you'll be the last turn I take. All of the signs are in colour. Baby, I'm on my way.'_

He and I both instantly perked up due to the soft cheery attitude of the song and the memories it stirred up. Dancing and kisses.

All of a sudden, with that song playing, I had an intense urge to kiss Marco. Kiss him everywhere. Everywhere.

"Fuck it." I groaned out, pulling the truck to the side of the road and parking it.

Without even letting Marco fully react to anything I leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips.

_'I was born a fool on the run. I've broken hearts and lost at love. There's not one thing I would change or undo, 'cause all my life's been a road to you.'_

"Sorry," I whispered, breath ghosting over his lips, "I can't very well kiss you while I'm driving and this song happened to come on."

Marco shrugged pulling me in for another kiss. His arms were wrapped around my neck whereas mine were draped around his chest.

Sensually we moved our lips and tongues together as 'Road To You' finished playing in the background. At this point that song was irrelevant, my arousal due to Marco's tonsil hockey skills was.

"God, Marco, you're so fucking amazing." I croaked out quietly, "let me suck you off, yeah?"

**Won't that cut into our travel time, Jean?**

"Baby, if we stopped for food than I think I should be allowed to give you a blowjob."

**Point taken. So, yeah feel free to give me oral in the passengers seat of a rented truck.**

"You're the best," I placed a quick kiss on Marco's lips as I freed his semi from it's clothed prison.

Carefully I leaned over the gear shift and emergency break to stroke him into full hardness. When I felt I'd done the job well enough, I unplugged my seat belt and leaned in to place my lips around his cock. Slowly I hollowed my cheeks as I brought my mouth down to the base of his length.

I began to bob my head faster, he began to moan louder. The louder his moans got the faster I'd move.

"Are you going to come for me, Marco?" I asked as seductively as I could with his length half shoved in my mouth. My reply was a high pitched whining noise.

"You must really enjoy it when I go down on-" Marco gently pushed my mouth down his length, drowning whatever words I had left to say. I wasn't really all that good at dirty talk during sex anyway, so I chose not to try and speak again, instead I just went back to sucking him off and he went back to moaning.

Not long after that Marco's quiet noises became slightly louder and more rapid and before I really knew what was happening I was choking on his release. I swallowed since in this situation spitting wasn't really an option and righted myself in my seat.

"Good for a quicky?" I questioned.

Marco gave me a worn-out nod and a smile.

"Good, I'm glad." I leaned over to give Marco a kiss but he squirmed away looking slightly disgusted. "What?"

_Dude._

"Oh geez, my mouth isn't _infected_ now, drama queen."

Marco giggled and simply wrote: **Whatever.**

Sighing loudly I pulled back onto the highway and thus after some making out and a quick blowjob we began to "calmly" travel once again.


	20. Twenty: Snow

_Well guys, here I am writing about snow in 20+ degree heat. Things are wrong here, but well whatever._

_Anyway, there are a lot of pairings in this chapter mostly because I wanted to write some Ereri._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Levi is in this chapter so here are the translations for his lisp:_  
><em>1. Duketh- Dukes 2. That'th-That's 3. Guyth-Guys 4. Mth. Leonhart- 5. Winth-Wins 6. Becauthe- Because 7. Wath-Was<em>

_Note: I'm sorry if this chapter seems rushed. I tried not to make it seem so but I feel like it came out that way. So, yeah, sorry about the rushy chapter._

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><p><strong>Twenty: Snow<strong>

In the blink of an eye November became December, and with December came snow, and with the snow came... more snow. Seriously the amount of snow that Trost had been hit with this particular year could only be described as a whole fuck-load or a shit-ton or a fucking-shit-load-ton, anyway what I'm getting at here is we got a lot of snow.

I had woken up too many mornings to find out it had snowed buckets over night. This particular morning was no exception. After dragging myself out of bed I'd went to the window to see exactly what anyone would expect these days, more snow. More snow that would stick to my jeans on the way to school and give me that nasty soggy feeling all day...can't wait!

Sluggishly I made some coffee and got myself ready for school. By the time I was out the door, I had excepted my fate of soggy jeans and trudged my way towards the brick buildings of Trost College of Business and the Arts. When I reached the large building, I sighed and took a swig of my caffeine as I walked up to the large doors of the English building.

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you."

The voice gave me a start, so I scurried away from the door. I turned to see Sasha and Eren sitting on a bench not too far away from the door.

Sasha waved and repeated, "I wouldn't go in there of I were you."

I put my hands on my hips. "I'm freezing my ass off out here, why the fuck shouldn't I go in?"

"Well..." Eren started, "the number one reason for not going in there should be the fact that there are no classes today due to the amount of snow out here."

"The number two reason should be because you want to come sit with us, Dearest Jean." Sasha piped up, swatting some snow off of where she wanted me to sit.

"You mean to tell me I walked all this way so I could sit next to one of my closest friends and my ex?" I glanced at the door one last time before I shrugged, moving to sit. "I guess I don't see a problem with that."

I made myself comfortable on the bench while the three of us started to talk. We spoke about this and that and whatever until the brilliant idea that we should call out our group of friends for a snowball fight arose. We went through the pros and cons of the thought until we reached the conclusion that it was an amazing idea and called up a group of friends.

Fifteen minutes after our calls, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Armin, Mikasa, Levi, Connie, Armin's stud-muffin of a boyfriend Erwin, Marco, Sasha, Eren and I were all standing in a circle as Sasha went over the rules and battle strategies of our 'snow ball war' as she called it.

"Okay now ladies and gents, first rule of our war is everybody for themselves. There are to be no alliances. Eren I'm looking at you. Alliances mean disqualification. Rule two: you are not out if you get hit, you're out when you feel as though you can't withstand the war anymore. The benches over there are where those who are out will sit, once you're on the bench you're not aloud off until someone has won and the battle is over. Our third and final rule is that the losers are to do anything that the winner says. Alright, our fight begins in five minutes. Take this time to stock up on ammo, build yourself a fortress or to go sit in a corner and think about life, we're not here to judge so whatever you want." She took a moment before yelling, "five minutes! Go!"

The twelve of us split off into different directions. Most of us (including myself) took off to begin making as many snowballs as possible, but of course some chose to think about their plans of action instead of mindlessly packing snow into ball like shapes. I noted that Annie, Levi and Armin were some of the people who chose to think instead of act in this situation before I went back to working with the snow under my feet.

Within the five minutes I had made over thirty misshapen snowballs that I would use to guide myself towards (hopefully) winning the war. With one in either hand and the rest scattered around my feet, I was ready.

"Five minutes!" Connie shouted. "The war has begun!" His girlfriend finished for him.

My snow weapons left my hands at the same time as those words still hung in the cold air. I don't know who or what they hit since I was already busy with picking up more ammo.

At what I believe was the ten minute mark about half of the 'soldiers' were already sitting on the bench, but that didn't really matter to me since I was still on the battlefield, feeling like a king.

"Put up your fucking duketh, Jean." Levi yelled, unleashing a barrage of snowballs that I didn't have time to dodge.

"Come at me, short-fry!" I taunted, spreading my arms in a 'watcha gonna do?' fashion.

I remember Levi cocking his pierced eyebrow and Eren wincing while saying, "you shouldn't have said that, Jean!"

I guess after that Levi attacked me with a pile of snow and then some snowballs for added effect. Needless to say once that happened I didn't really feel like a king anymore and I defiantly didn't want to put up anymore of a fight, so instead I went to go sit out on a bench with Marco.

**That was harsh out there.** Marco typed.

"Yeah, it was." I muttered, shivering from the cold. "I guess I deserved it though."

**You called one of the moodiest guys in Trost a short-fry, I think you deserved it a little bit.** Marco leaned foreword and kissed me on the cheek. **Either way you fought good out there.**

"You think so?"

**I know so.** He kissed me again, but this time on the lips.

* * *

><p>Marco and I quietly watched from the sidelines as the fight went on. Person after person began to leave until only two remained. Annie and Levi.<p>

Mikasa nudged her brother, "my girlfriend going to win."

"Not a chance!" Eren yelled.

"Well at this point it's a fifty/fifty chance." Armin added.

"But they're both skilled fighters so what if it just keeps going forever?" Connie asked.

"They have to stop at some point, Con. Everyone get's hungry." Sasha sated matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, but in their case this it would be hunger verses pride, and I think pride would win in this. I've known Levi for a while, he's not going to stop anytime soon." Erwin chimed in.

"Forever is also a long time, Connie." Bertholdt added timidly.

"Okay, whatever." Eren hissed. "My boyfriend going to win either way."

"How about you all shut up and watch what's going on." I suggested, turning back to the brawl at hand.

Annie and Levi were, by the looks of things, both experts at dodging. They also both had strong throwing arms, good aim and they were both fairly flexible. As it was said earlier, this fight had an unpredictable outcome.

Everything was indeed unpredictable until Levi threw a snowball that hit Annie directly across the jaw. They both stood there breathing for a moment before Levi smiled and walked away. "That'th it guyth, Mth. Leonhart winth."

Mikasa, Reiner and Bertholdt cheered, running over to the shorter blonde female to congratulate her.

"Wait, what?" Eren cried out running up to his boyfriend. "Why'd you quit the match?"

"Becauthe I was bored." He crossed his arms in a way that made him look vaguely more unimpressed than usual.

"Because you were bored? Dude I was rooting for you and you did this." Insert dramatic sigh here. "I have to admit though, you were kinda bad ass out there."

"Yeah, I wath." Levi wrapped his arms around Eren and that was the exact moment I chose to look away.

"Hey everyone! Let's go get something hot to drink and then Annie can tell us what she wants us losers to do." Sasha suggested loudly.

Nobody in their right mind would turn down something warm at this point so the twelve of us all agreed and headed out to the café.

"Woah, big group of snow covered people." Ymir glanced us all up and down when we walked into the small restaurant. "What back alley did you guys crawl out of?"

"It was a snowball war. We're all cold and we just need drinks here, Ymir." I quietly muttered.

"Mhhhm, I could've guessed that, Johnny-boy. You all just grab some tables and put 'em together. I'll be back to get all them orders in a sec." Ymir disappeared into the kitchen so we all set to work pushing tables together. By the time she made it back we were all sitting around the tables we'd put together, laughing and joking.

As she was taking everyone's orders, I leaned over to Marco and gave him a quick kiss. "You did good. After this we can head back to my place to make the most of a day without classes."

**That sounds good.**

I gently nipped his ear, "we'll have lots of fun then."

"What are you two whispering about?" Connie asked, nudging me slightly.

"Nothing!" I sat up straight, turning bright red.

"Sure..." Ymir chimed in sarcastically.

* * *

><p>After hot drinks, Marco did come over to my place and contrary to popular belief everything we did that day was PG. I mean, all we did was play Minecraft and by Minecraft I basically mean we fuc-...well you get the idea.<p> 


	21. Twenty-One:Christmas Holidays&A New Year

_O__kay, Christmas chapter in June, that's just how I roll! Okay well... Not really but this chapter DID have to happen at some point. Anyway, this chapter is kind of like that Thanksgiving chapter in the sense that it kind of skips around a bit. I hope that's okay._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters people or places used. I just own the writing. _

_Enjoy._

_Levi is in this chapter, here are the translations for what he says: _

_Minuteth - Minutes_

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><p><strong>Twenty-One: Christmas Holidays and A New Year<strong>

Throughout the month of December snow began to fall more and more, and with these large amounts of falling precipitation came the Christmas season with it's intense holiday cheer.

Shopping centers became war zones, streets filled with crowds of Christmas tourists, and worst of all, I didn't even know what Marco wanted. Yes, that's right, I was at a complete loss as for what to get my own boyfriend and I couldn't feel worse about it.

* * *

><p>I let out a tired sigh as I stepped into my apartment. Christmas was just a week and a half away and I was still dawdling around trying to find a proper gift. Jewelry? No. Art tools? Nah. Clothes? Definitely not! At this point my rope was wearing thin, I needed an idea, and I needed one fast.<p>

Feeling one hundred percent defeated I threw myself onto the nearest couch.

"What am I going to do?" I asked no one in particular while I pulled out my phone. "None of my ideas are any good. Who would buy their boyfriend clothes for Christmas? Geez, like 'oh, I really love and appreciate you, here have this shirt that says 'that's what she said' on it.'" I continued to rant about presents to myself as I played around with my phone.

I stopped myself half way through my ramblings when I found a picture of Marco and I. The picture had been taken in the summer some time after we had gotten together. I was wearing my glasses as well as a red beanie, my cheeks had also flared red when I took the picture since I had leaned over at that exact moment to kiss Marco on the cheek.

"Hmmm, cute." I mused, flipping through some more pictures of us together. There were photos of our date nights and our beach trip and our thanksgiving in Oregon. "He and I should start an album... Oh my god." I gripped my phone tighter, bolting into a standing position, "that's it, I've got it! A photo album of our time together!"

I laughed, hugging my phone to my chest. "Oh my god, that's perfect."

A photo album was a fucking great idea, Marco would totally be into all the pictures and memories it would hold. All I needed now was an album and prints of all the pictures I wanted to use.

* * *

><p>Over the next day or two I worked as hard as I possibly could on getting Marco's gift together. I had purchased a sleek looking black leather bound photo album and had spent hours slipping photos inside of it.<p>

Picture after picture after picture were placed within the book until it was nearly halfway full. The way I looked at it was, it was half filled with memories and half empty with space for more, which was just something that my boyfriend would totally be into.

Feeling proud of my gift idea and anxious about Marco's reaction, I wrapped the album with red wrapping paper and hid it in the back of my closet until Christmas.

"Okay, gifts are done. I guess it's about time I got into the holiday spirit."

And that was exactly what I did.

* * *

><p>In the next week Marco was over at my apartment frequently getting ready for the holidays. We decorated the apartment (but not the artificial tree I had bought, we were decorating that on Christmas Eve), we baked (and nearly caught the whole apartment building on fire) and of course we watched all the cheesy specials on T.V at night before we fell asleep.<p>

"Christmas Eve is the day after tomorrow." I reminded Marco while we watched one of said specials.

Marco flashed me a bright smile. **It sure is, merry Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve.**

"Yeah, merry Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve to you too." I chuckled, "I can't wait to decorate our tree, I also can't wait to give you your gift. God, baby, I haven't been this excited about gift giving in a long time."

**Well you have me, so I now give you a reason to be excited. **

"Yes because you're the only reason I'm allowed to get excited, you truly are king of everything." I stuck my tongue out playfully before leaning to kiss the tip of his freckled nose, "I'm just yanking your chain. I love you."

He held his phone up to my face in a 'talk to the hand' manner. **I love you too, you big old dork.**

We turned our attention back to the special but not before we shared a few completely un-cliché kisses._

* * *

><p>Slowly but surely the eve of the eve of Christmas Eve passed, so did the eve of Christmas Eve. So, as you likely assumed, it was now December twenty-fourth. Both my boyfriend and I were so completely into the spirit at this point, I mean who wasn't?<p>

"Marco Bodt, as far as ugly tree decorating sweaters go, yours is officially the ugliest."

**Your sweater is not much prettier, but thank you.** Marco grabbed the sides of his oversized putrid green Santa sweater and pretended to curtsy.

I smirked straightening out my bright red knitted sweater that read in white letters _'Merry Christmas you filthy animal'_. "Ugly but warm clothing articles are a check then. Tree decorating now?"

He nodded, winking in my direction.

"Perfect, the box is right there. Fingers crossed nothing breaks this year, I always end up breaking something." I sighed, diving for the box of decorations with Marco nonetheless.

Within half an hour our small tree was almost completely decorated, just a few items needed to be added.

"Not much left to put on." I stated, checking out how the tree looked.

Marco acknowledged this statement by pulling a bundle of mistletoe out of the box.

"You're not using the most cliché plant on me on the most cliché night of the year." I backed away slowly from the menacing bundle in Marco's hand. He smirked and walked slowly towards me, much like a Christmassy version of Frankenstein's monster would have.

"No," I whimpered jokingly when he reached me, holding the plant over my head. He leaned in closer, and closer, and closer until he gently pecked me on the nose.

"Oh my god, first you use mistletoe on me and then you don't even kiss me properly. Oh my- oh my god, I'm not talking to you." I huffed and turned to place a few decorations on the tree.

Moments later I felt Marco's arms snake around my waist. He placed his lips gently on my earlobe and nibbled.

"What...- are you doing?" I moaned, turning my head, slightly. He left my ear to kiss me full on the lips.

"Was that supposed to make up for the nose kiss?"

He nodded.

"Well, I guess it kind of did, but you'd better finished what you started here."

He nodded again, taking my hand to lead me off to my bedroom.

* * *

><p>The next morning I was awoken by sunlight pouring through my window. I groaned rolling myself over to evade the light.<p>

"Merry Christmas." I yawned, realizing Marco was already awake.

He smiled gently. **Merry Christmas, Jean.**

"Hmm, thanks. I guess we should get up and open our presents since it's already..." I squinted, "I can't read the clock, it's fucking blurry. Whatever time it is, we should get up."

**The clock says that it's seven thirty. Isn't the too early for a college student to wake up?**

"It's a holiday, the time doesn't really matter."

For but a moment it looked like an argument was going to be made, but in the end he shrugged, dragging himself out of bed in search for clothing. I smirked as I did the same.

Thirty minutes later he and I were sat in front of our decorated tree with coffee, tea and each others gifts.

**You go first.** Marco typed.

"Okay." I glanced from Marco to the nicely wrapped gift before tearing through the layer of wrapping paper.

"It's a painting?" I asked, flipping over the piece of canvas to see what was on it. It wasn't really a painting, it was crayons hot glued onto the top of the canvas in a rainbow fashion and then melted. Beneath the shower of melted wax was a lightly sketched couple holding umbrellas together.

"Whoa," I whispered, running my fingers gingerly over the melted wax. "How long did this take? Wait, never mind, it's beautiful. I- I love it."

He grinned, **I'm glad, I was kind of worried you wouldn't.**

"Come on, baby, there's nothing that you'd make that I wouldn't love." I leaned in to kiss him, "thank you so much, now open mine!"

I held my breath as he tore through the wrapping paper and held up the album. He opened it and flipped through the pages. He smiled brightly, placing his hand over his heart as he looked through some more pages.

"Do...you like it?"

**Do I like it? **He closed the book.** I love it, Jean! It's amazing. It's..it's wow. **He pulled me into a hug, kissing my cheek.

At this point in time I was just happy that Marco enjoyed the photo album. My semi-last minute present idea had worked and better yet he loved it!

The rest of the day was uneventful, Marco looked through his present more than a few times while I hung up my new art piece. We ate a lot and talked a lot. Basically we just did a whole lot of nothing as many people do. Towards the end of the day he and I curled up in front of my electrical fireplace and fell asleep. This lazy Christmas we had together sure beat some of the lonely Christmases I'd had in the past.

* * *

><p>The remaining days in December flew by and before I knew it, it was New Years Eve and with New Years Eve came lot's of drinking and an Eren party.<p>

"Do I have to go in there? Everyone's going to be drunk and loud, especially Eren. Does it even matter that it's going to be a new year?"

**Yes you have to and yes it matters. **Marco linked his arm in mine, walking into the party.

"Happy New Year!" Sasha practically yelled, nearly tackling me to the ground as I walked in. "and the happiest of new years to you too, dearest Marco."

"God, kill me why don't you." I joked, hugging Sasha. "Happy New Year." I added.

"You boys were almost late, you've only got ten minutes to spare before the countdown!" Christa said in passing.

"Yeah boys, ten minutes." Ymir repeated, following her girlfriend.

"Nine minuteth now actually," Levi piped up, leaning against the nearest door frame.

"God, this is going to be a long nine minutes." I mumbled under my breath.

As I had guessed nine minutes passed painstakingly slowly as they always do on new years but at least I had Marco and the others to make conversation with as they did.

"Oh my god, oh my god. The countdown is starting." A half drunk Eren yelled.

"10...

9...

8...

7...

6...

5...

4...

3..."

I grabbed Marco by the waist, by the looks of things Levi had the same idea for Eren.

"2...

1...

Happy new year!" Came the shouting chorus from nearly everyone.

I kissed Marco forcefully on the lips which caused a few of my drunken friends to wolf whistle.

I didn't break the kiss and neither did he, we just stayed there completely absorbed in each other. In that moment I was ready to face whatever this new year had to throw at me, I was ready for school but most of all I was ready to face all the challenges I had to with Marco. Whatever or whomever was out there, I was ready. Yes, a very Happy New Year.


	22. Twenty-Two: Don't Fight Me

_H__ello everyone this is a semi-worried author here asking that no one here shanks me for the content of this chapter. I'm just trying to make Jean and Marco's relationship believable here, and sometimes that means... well... read to find out (and please remember that I am so not ready to take in the fury of my readers). I promise a happy ending though!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

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><p><strong>Twenty-Two: Don't Fight Me<strong>

January was snowy, wet and dreary as usual. This crappy excuse for winter weather made mostly everyone around Trost irritable. Slush in your boots and grey skies above you is basically enough to make anybody grumpy. Marco and I were no exceptions.

I really wish I could say that I didn't succumb to this general moodiness of the world, but being completely honest, I did. I really did. During the month of January I butted heads with Eren more often and I generally just said a lot of stupid, reckless things. Stupid reckless things that I really couldn't blame on slush in my Converse.

The most prominently stupid thing in my head was the fight I caused with Marco one day after coming home from school. Classes had been bad that day, I had gotten snowed/rained on on my way home and I just generally wasn't pleased with the existence of anything, or anyone for that matter.

From the moment I stepped foot into my apartment, Marco had tried to comfort me. He had sensed I was pissed and had done everything in his power to make me feel better, but I just pushed him away.

"I don't want your coffee." I muttered dryly, turning my nose up at the hot brown substance before me.

Marco looked puzzled, but he pulled the mug away from me and placed it in the sink nonetheless. He wiped his hands before holding out his arms in a _'how about a hug?'_ motion.

"No, I don't want to fucking hug right now."

He looked taken aback and slightly hurt. His large brown doe eyes studied me, silently asking what was wrong.

I knew deep down that be was just trying to look out for me, but something inside me snapped.

"Nothing's wrong. We're all chipper in this neck of the woods." I paused, letting my emotions swirl around in my chest. "No, no, I'm actually not fine but it's not like anyone would care either way, now would they?"

Marco opened and closed his mouth a few times, as if he were trying to form the words that he couldn't. His hand was reaching for his phone, but what I said stopped him from grabbing it.

"Fucking say it. Don't hide behind your phone, say that you care because you're fucking perfect. Speak it like you mean it. Talk, dammit. Say something." I clapped both of my hands over my mouth. "Oh my god... Marco... I-"

He stared at me in disbelief for a moment, tears were welling up in the corners of his eyes. He shook his head, throwing his hands up before walking out of my apartment.

"Oh...oh my god."

I dropped to my knees, completely shocked at my own words. How could I? Why did I? Couldn't I have stopped myself? Was that Marco's last straw, were we over? I began to sob as one million more questions filtered in and out of my mind.

Tears on my lashes and questions in my head were my company for what felt like an eternity, until my phone blipped with a text alert. I had half the mind not to look at it, but I felt compelled to with my world crashing and burning around me.

**From: Marco**

**Jean Olivier Kirschtein, I'm giving you exactly three minutes to come down to the lobby and explain yourself or else I'm going to spend the night at Sasha's. That hurt me Jean, so the clock is ticking.**

I had to read over the text a few times before I realized that it was from Marco and he was actually giving me a chance to be forgiven. I silently thanked my boyfriend as I wiped away the remnants of my tears. raced out of my apartment and ran to the staircase, taking the flights two at a time. When I finally made it down stairs I was out of breath and a total mess.

"Marco," I heaved, using the last of my athletic energy to jog over to him. "Marco-"

He held up a slender finger, silencing me before I could properly start a sentence.

**Please don't say your sorry, I already know you are. I just want to know why you said it. You know I can't speak with my vocal cords, you know I have to sign or type and better yet you know if I could talk I would have said everything I could have to make you feel better. Why did you say it.**

He crossed his arms and looked at me with his heartbroken eyes.

I swallowed the lump that was forming in my throat. "I said it because I needed to blow off steam. It's been a not so good day for me and... well... I guess I just kind of exploded. I never in one million years would have meant to say any of those things to you. I just had all these emotions bottled up inside me and once I started running my tongue I couldn't stop myself. Marco, you told me not to apologize but I'm going to anyway. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I yelled at and insulted you. Please forgive me."

He kept his arms crossed and for a moment I thought he might reject me, but in the end he nodded, smiling at me.

**You're forgiven. Just promise me that you'll think before you speak. I mean not all of us can just hit backspace to erase everything like I can.**

"I promise, Marco. You're my boyfriend and I love you more than anything."

**That was far too sappy, I think I'm gonna barf. **

"Hey now, what I'm trying to say is that I really do love you, no matter what. I wouldn't sit sobbing in my kitchen for just anyone, you know."

**And I wouldn't cry in a semi-public apartment complex lobby for just anyone either. Let's just put this stupid fight behind us, okay?**

"Alright, the past will stay in the past where it belongs." I kissed both his cheeks gently.

**Good. By the way, Jean?**

"Yeah?"

Marco smiled handing his phone over to me while he signed exactly what his written message said. **I love you too.**


	23. Twenty-Three: Give Your Heart Day

_Oh man okay, I'm sorry that this is a week late. I was travelling which made it hard to write and also I didn't have power for two whole days so that cut into editing and uploading. Anyway, this chapter is basically just fluff since I'm still trying to make up for last chapter._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_Warning: There is some smut in this chapter, it's not crazily detailed nor is it completely finished, but either way please beware if you're not into reading things like that._

* * *

><p><strong>Twenty-Three: Give Your Heart Day<strong>

Dreary January wrapped itself up without anymore serious disagreements and thus came February with it's intense 'romantic' aura. Shops and public places were filled with artificial pink hearts and people who were into Valentine's day were generally pumped for such a romantic holiday. I honestly wasn't all that pumped, sure I had a boyfriend this year, but Marco and I weren't really going to do anything special... well nothing more special than eating, cuddling and potential sex. He and I had both agreed that we'd go all out gift wise for each others birthdays instead of a minor holiday such as Valentine's. Don't get me wrong here, I couldn't wait to spend time with my freckled angel, it just didn't really matter to either of us what day it was or wasn't for that matter.

So, as you likely assumed, when the fourteenth rolled around Marco and I didn't loose our shit. I picked up a bouquet with a red and white colour scheme for him since he loved flowers so much, but that was really the only special thing I did. He and I cuddled and smooched and ate sweets after I'd given him his flowers. As I said before, nothing special but still enjoyable.

"Open your mouth."

Marco raised an eyebrow but did as he was told. I smiled gently as I made a move to place a chocolate between his lips. Just as the treat was about to pass into his mouth I lunged forward and stole a kiss. I also stole the chocolate back.

He pouted, looking betrayed and I laughed.

**That was mean. Really mean.**

"Oh was it?" I asked, chewing the chocolate thoughtfully. "I'm sorry. Here, take this one." I moved to hand him another sweet but, again, I put it in my own mouth, chuckling as I did so.

Marco looked slightly heartbroken by the fact that I would do such a thing twice. **Jean! How could you do that two times in a row? I trusted you.**

I chuckled as soon as I swallowed. "Easy, I took my hand and put the chocolate in my mouth as opposed to yours. Twice. Not hard."

**You've betrayed me Jean Kirschtein.** He pouted and turned his face away from mine. **I didn't even want your chocolate. **He added, turning his phone towards me without turning his body.

"You lie like a rug." I gently slid a chocolate towards him. "I'm sorry though, here take this."

He glanced at it for a moment or two before giving in and eating it.** You have yet to fully redeem yourself.**

"What? I gave you a chocolate, plus I said I was sorry. What else can I do?"

**Well, Valentine's sex wouldn't be half bad. And if it's not too much trouble I wouldn't mind having another chocolate.**

"I think I could manage one if not both of those." I placed my hand on top of his shoulder, smiling when he turned to face me. He smiled as well.

**Perfect. We should get to work then, shouldn't we?**

"Well if you think that would be a good-" Marco placed his lips forcefully over mine. Whatever words I was going to say died in my throat as I melted into our kiss. He had always been good with his mouth, like really good, so when he somewhat gently bit down on my lip I immediately granted him entrance. Our tongues moved together with one another's in a sensual way as Marco dominantly took over. I groaned quietly, my face flushing red as I wrapped my arms around him.

"Marco, wait." I murmured quietly, disconnecting our lips. I groped around until I found the box of chocolates and handed him one. "Here take this before we continue."

He laughed a little setting the chocolate down before tackling me in another passionate kiss. I smirked, wrapping my legs around his waist, whispering, "I guess you didn't really want the candy at all then."

Marco rolled his eyes, quickly changing the subject by grinding his hips against mine. I gasped, involuntarily bucking upwards to meet him. It hadn't really clicked in my head just how turned on I was until then and honestly the lack of skin to skin contact was killing me. In need of more touching I barked out the simple command, "more."

He stopped for a split second, giving me a teasing look that said_ 'more what?' _before rocking his hips against mine once again.

I choked out a half laugh half moan, "you know exactly what I want...so-" another grind of his hips "so take my pants off and give me the fucking amazing oral that you always give."

Marco looked dumbfounded for a moment at my bluntness but he soon recovered, shimmying down to where there was a fairly obvious bulge in my pants. From then on the blowjob king began to work his magic. His lips, his tongue and occasionally his teeth all working themselves over my hardened cock.

"Oh...my god." I hissed in pure euphoria as my cheeks turned a deep shade of crimson. "You're fucking perfect Marc- Ahhh. Baby."

I babbled on and on about whatever came into my mind while Marco continued to bob his head up and down my length. Every movement he made felt better than the last and I would have been content to come like that but Marco had other ideas. He detached himself from my cock, sitting up on his heels. I propped myself up on my elbows to watch him.

"Why did you stop? I was perfectly happy with what we had going there."

Marco smiled reaching for (what I hoped would be a bottle of lube or something) a chocolate (which just in case you didn't know isn't lube). He gently placed the sweet in between his lips and chewed it, never breaking eye contact with me.

"Huh?"

He fumbled around with his phone.** I told you I wanted a chocolate and just because I didn't want it a couple minutes ago when you gave it to me doesn't mean I don't want it now. **

"You quit giving me the best head so you could eat a chocolate."

**Yes. You could put it that way.**

I snorted, hitting him on the shoulder,"you are the biggest nerd I've ever met."

He giggled.** I'm your nerd though.**

"Yeah, you are." I kissed him on the cheek lovingly. "Now, are you going to finish what you started or am I going to have to go take a cold shower."

Marco leaned forward, connecting our lips in a passionate kiss that reminded me of just how much I wanted it.

"I'll definitely take that as a yes." I purred into his mouth as I braced myself for one hell of a round of Valentine's sex.


	24. Twenty-Four: Spring Job

_T__his chapter is a week late, I know that, but I'm going to blame it on traveling (again). It's hard to write and edit when you're trying to be all touristy with your family that doesn't even know that you write a story for people on the Internet. Anyway, the good news is that I'm at home for the month of August, so hopefully updates won't be as spotty as they have been lately. Okay, that's enough from me._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

* * *

><p><strong>Twenty-Four: Spring Job<strong>

After Valentine's day was over and done with I began to notice that the amount of money I had saved wasn't what it used to be. I guess all of the pizzas, little gifts and rental cars that I had paid for were beginning to add up, so I decided it would be in my best interests to get a job at the café again.

I started work on the first Monday of spring after being hired basically on the spot by Ymir who was sick of working all her shifts with Little Miss Stoic (Annie Leonhardt). Believe it or not, I was actually pretty pumped to get back to work regardless of the fact that I had to balance shifts between classes and boyfriend time.

"Kirschtein, go wait on the young man sitting at table four." Ymir barked the order at me, barely taking her attention away from whatever she was preoccupied with.

"What table is number four?"

"The one your boyfriend is currently sitting at alone. Go give Freckled Jesus some tea with a shit-ton of sugar and a little company." My eyes followed Ymir's gaze to find that Marco was indeed sitting at a table by himself. I smiled, admiring the sight of him for a moment before bustling my way into the kitchen, tripping over my own feet. Not needing to take his order I made his drink quick as a whip then added an unholy amount of sugar.

"Order's up for table four." I announced casually to Ymir, striding towards where Marco was sitting with a spring in my step. Thankfully he didn't notice I was coming towards his table until I set his drink down.

"Hey baby, are you from Wisconsin? Because you're the only ten I see." I clicked my tongue and made finger guns in Marco's direction. It took me a moment to process what I had actually just said, but when I did I facepalmed and blushed profusely. "Oh boo, I fucked up. Can I please redo that?"

Marco was shaking from laughter as he wrote out his response on a notepad that he had brought along. **You just messed up the most cliché pickup line ever. Seriously, that was perfect. You're too much of a dork for your own good, Jean.**

"Hey, watch it now, I could take that tea away before you even finish your next sentence."

**You may be a dork, but at least you're my dork, Jean. And also, please don't take away my drink. **Marco pouted.

"I wouldn't." I smiled, leaning foreword to gently rest my elbows on the table. He smiled pulling me into an affectionate kiss by the front of my barista apron. Our lips moved together in the sweet way that they always did. When I drew away for a breath I felt a very swift hand swat against the back of my head.

"Oww..." I hissed, rubbing the back of my head, "what the actual hell was that for?"

"You've got other tables to wait on Kirschtein. Sorry to interrupt your moment, but I'd rather not have pissed off customers biting at my ass because of lazy staff." Ymir crossed her arms over her chest looking less than impressed, motioning towards a couple of tables that now had people sitting at them.

"Come on Ymir, you told me to keep Marco company. I can't just stop now. Plus, Annie works here too. Why don't you make her do something for once."

"That was before we started filling up with demanding people and Annie can't do everything on her own. Also, this is only your first day back at the café and you'd better not be slacking off or complaining yet."

"I am neither complaining nor am I slacking off but either way I will go take some orders." I muttered before turning back to Marco for a moment, "stick around for a while, yeah?"

He nodded and with that I was off to work. I took orders, served drinks and talked to customers. While I did those tasks I would slip by Marco's seat and peck him on the cheek or touch his hand or quickly say hello. Letting each other know we were still around by little touches had become a constant thing, it was odd but reassuring.

We functioned around each other like this for the whole evening until my shift was over and it was time to head out.

"I'm finished for the night, baby. Do you wanna swing by my place?"

Marco looked up at me apologetically. **I've got early classes and I promised Armin that I'd walk with him tomorrow morning. If I go home with you there's no way I won't end up crashing in your bed. Maybe next time?**

I chuckled slightly, "it's true, you usually do spend the night if you drop in. If you'd rather not come over then can I walk you home?"

**That would be great, Jean. I love having attractive men walk me home. **He smirked at me jokingly.

Awkwardly, I blushed and stuttered, "R-Right then, I guess we should get going."

Marco stood up, ready to hit the road.** Oh, Jean, one last thing before we head out...**

"What?" I raised an eyebrow.

**I was just wondering if you were from Tennessee? Because you're the only ten I see.**

I stared at him until he burst out laughing. "You've got five seconds to run baby and then I'm coming for you."

He squeaked but continued to laugh as he ran out of the café. I soon sprinted after him. Marco Bodt was definitely going to pay for using that pickup line when I caught up to him. I don't know how, but he was going to pay.


	25. Twenty-Five: One Year

_S__o, the last chapter of this story took place in March and this chapter takes place in July. I know that's like a four month time skip but this chapter is fairly important to the story and I didn't feel like pushing it back to add more fillers. Please bear with me on this one!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy. _

_Note: When Marco uses sign language it will be in bold and not in quotation marks just like when he types, because I'm already so into the habit of making whatever he's saying bold._

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><p><strong>Twenty-Five: One Year<strong>

It was now July which meant that Marco and I had both recently aged, classes were over and most importantly our one year anniversary was upon us. Unlike Christmas I actually knew what I was doing for this event, though; romantic supper and the grand unveiling of my ability to sign. I was ready for this... actually, I was insanely anxious and worried that I'd say something wrong, but at this point I refused to back out.

"You're out of it today." Annie looked at me with her usual emotionless stare, her eyes showing the slightest flicker of concern.

"Hmmm, yeah. My shift is over in like half an hour and I just really want to get back home so I can start getting my anniversary shit together."

She smirked softly, leaning herself against the nearest counter. "You and Marco, huh? Well, good luck with whatever your doing. You'd better not be winging it like Mikasa and I did."

"I'm actually not winging anything, but thank you anyway." I smiled nervously which awarded me a pat on the back as she walked into the kitchen and with that I was left with my own thoughts and worries for the remainder of a half hour. What if I overcooked the pasta? What if I sign something wrong? What if i accidentally get food poisoning and puke on Marco when I'm trying to be sexy?

Even after a half hour had passed and I was at home cooking our anniversary dinner I was still plagued with stupid worries. What if Marco didn't like my food and was just too polite to say it? What if he isn't impressed with what I've learned to sign for him? What if, what if, what if? I could have worried myself into a coma with all these what if's. That is I could have until I got distracted by the television thus forgetting most if not all of my worries and the pasta that was cooking on the stove.

"Shit!" I exclaimed when the program I was watching finished. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" I raced towards the kitchen, tripping over my socked feet at least twice. I could already smell the burned sauce and by this point the noodles were probably a gummy disgusting mess. To my dismay it was at this exact moment that I also heard my apartment door creaking open signaling that Marco was here. Feeling as if the universe hated me more than ever, I turned the stove off and went to go meet him in the pantry.

"Hello, baby." I leaned against the nearest wall and tried my hardest not too look as if I were hiding something, "are you feeling up for pizza tonight, because I'm really in the mood for pizza and not overcooked pasta. Fuck, not that I overcooked some pasta or anything, just pizza sounded nice."

Marco raised an eyebrow as he slowly pulled out his phone. **Pizza sounds fine... Did you burn something in here recently?**

Crumbling under the semi-nonexistent pressure, I sighed. "I was making us dinner when I got side tracked by... cartoons and I ended up making everything inedible and you happened to walk in before I could try and make something else so that's why I'm going to have to order us an anniversary pizza."

Marco lovingly kissed me on the cheek which caused me to melt completely**. That's very thoughtful of you to try, Jean. How about I help you clean out the kitchen while we wait for our order to come in?**

"You're welcome, but you probably won't be thanking me after you see the state of my kitchen." I scratched the back of my neck and laughed sheepishly before dragging him deeper into my apartment.

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><p>An hour later found us with half a pizza and a semi-clean kitchen. For the past while Marco and I had been idly talking and eating, so at this point I thought I might as well give him a show.<p>

"Uhmm... Marco. I want to show... err... not show... tell... uhhh... show and tell you something that I've been uhmm working on, yeah?"

He tilted his head with a confused look, but motioned for me to get on with it anyway.

"Okay, well, I've been going to this thing every week for the past little while for you and... wait I don't like where that sentence was going. Can I start that again?"

Marco covered his mouth, giggling adorably. He nodded his head a couple times in a way of urging me forward.

"Okay," I repeated, composing myself for a moment, "alright, so I've been going to these classes for the past while and in those classes I've been learning something... special... for you. I only needed the right time to show it off and I thought that our anniversary was as important a time as any, so I hope your ready."

Wasting no time I lifted my hand and began to sign as I spoke. "Hello, my name is Jean Kirstein. Today is our anniversary and I am showing you what I have learned over these last couple months from a woman named Petra. I've been learning sign language so we can better communicate. I honestly hope this means as much to you as it does to me, my dear. Oh and by the way, this means no more phones!"

Marco was unresponsive for a moment. And a couple more moments. And even more moments. He silently processed everything to the point where I thought I'd fucked up so badly that he couldn't even respond.

But then something happened, well actually a few things happened. Number one: Marco burst into tears, number two: he threw himself into my arms and number three: he kissed me with enough force to nearly knock me off my chair. He kissed my lips and then my cheeks and jawline and then my lips again. He lavished me with kisses and when he finally detached himself from me he was still crying his eyes out.

**You can understand me? You did this for me?** He signed.

"Yes, baby! Yes! I can understand you!" I leaned forward to wipe his tear stained cheeks. "And yes, I did this for you." I lowered my hand from his cheek so I could cup his face.

**Why would you do something like this for me?**

"Because you're my better half and I'd be lost without you by my side." I tenderly kissed his forehead. "Plus your phone battery can only last so long."

That earned me a playful slap on the shoulder. **Jean! **

"Sorry, sorry." I gently kissed Marco for what seemed like the millionth time that night. "Happy anniversary Marco. I really hope you enjoyed my surprise."

**Happy anniversary Jean. I definitely enjoyed your surprise, can't you tell since I'm not typing right now? Anyway, I'll be giving you something at some point tonight too. Whenever you feel like moving to the bedroom that is.**

I nearly choked on my own spit at that, "what?"

**Spoiler alert, Jean. I'm letting you top.**

This time I actually choked on the spit, "wait what? Am I seeing what you just said correctly?"

Marco laughed, choosing not to respond and it was at that moment that I realized that our anniversary had barely just began.


	26. Twenty-Six: Kiss Me Inside out

_A__lright, here we go! This might not be my favourite arrangement for the JeanMarco sex but I thought when planning out and writing this chapter that I may as well give you all a treat with some top Jean. So, I'll get on with the chapter then._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any if the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing. The lyrics at the end are not mine either. The song is Road to You by Five for Fighting, so all rights go to the songs creator._

_Enjoy._

_Warning: Just in case you haven't guessed it yet I will warn you, this chapter contains sexual activities between Jean and Marco. If you would rather not read something of that nature I'd suggest not reading past this point. Thank you._

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><p><strong>Twenty-Six: Kiss Me Inside Out<strong>

I knew what I was doing. I was calm, I was collected. I was on top of the world... or on top of Marco, either way I felt pretty good. Actually, I felt beyond amazing. There was something satisfactory about being on top of Marco, kissing him and running my hands over his freckled body like there was no tomorrow.

"So, what brought this whole idea on?" I asked quietly, nipping at his ear whilst running my hands down his tanned stomach.

**I wanted to try a new position... and I guess I was also wondering something... **His signing was choppy since he paused for a noticeable period of time.

"Hmmm," I halted my movement to look him in the eye. "What were you wondering?"

**Could you talk to me? We've been kind of vanilla with everything, so I thought maybe you could speak while you top since I, you know, can't.**

I blinked a couple times, letting his words sink in. I honestly had no experience with dirty talk but I saw no reason why I couldn't at least try. If Marco wanted this I could definitely put in an effort, I mean at least it wasn't something that involved whips or toys.

"Sure thing, baby. Just remember I'm a little inexperienced with this, okay?" I muttered, going back to nipping at his ear and jawline as my hands ran over his midsection.

Most conversation stopped between us as our foreplay began to pick up speed. Due to Marco's requests I slipped in a few subtle phrases such as_ 'you're beautiful' _and_ 'I'm going to fuck you so hard' _to slowly warm him up to talking in a situation like this. Dirty talk felt foreign to me, but topping did too, so I guess it was about time to come out of my shell and try my shot at both.

I was shaken out of my thoughts by a particularly loud moan from Marco. I smirked, letting my tongue flick over the angered purple mark that I had unintentionally formed on his chest. "You enjoyed that, hmmm?"

A frantic nod.

"Wouldn't you like me to mark you somewhere... lower?" I dropped my voice an octave, gently running my pointer finger down his chest to rest at the hem of his pants. "You would."

He let at a high-pitched whine at this, nodding his head more vigorously than before. **Please, Jean.**

"How could I say no to such a polite young man." I whispered, tugging his jeans down just far enough to expose the tops of his hip bones. "This is low enough, yes?" I asked teasingly as I scraped my teeth over his prominent bone.

Marco let out a quiet gasp which urged me forward. I began leaving marks and kisses all over the area. I was working on a particularly large hickey when I noticed that Marco had began to frantically sign the word lower over and over again.

"Lower?" I asked quietly. "Where lower? Would you like me to go here," I ghosted my hand over the noticeable bulge in his pants, "or maybe you'd like me to paint a pretty picture of purple and red along here," I ran my hands gently over his inner thighs.

Marco held out his pointer finger. One. Choice number one.

"Here?" I asked quietly, palming his erection through its two layer fabric prison. "You want me to touch you here, right? You want me to use my mouth here as well, don't you, Marco?"

All my questions were answered with a pitiful whimper and a nod.

I smiled at this, not only because Marco was too cute to believe, but also because he was actually seeming to enjoy and even be aroused by what I was saying and asking him. I guess I could put dirty talk down in my book of talents. Not that I actually have a book of talents or anything, but if I had one I'd probably put it down for the time being at least.

"Alrighty then, let's do this." With one (actually more like a couple) not so swift movement I got Marco's boxers (which proudly sported the words _'ask the cutie before you touch the booty' _all over them) and jeans down. His cock stood perfectly erect, begging to be played with. I let another small smile grace my lips as I went down on him, taking as much into my mouth as I could.

Now, as you all know I don't have the title of Blowjob King, but I still try my hardest to give mind blowing oral. I hollowed my cheeks, used a lot of tongue around the slit and down his shaft and took as much of him into my mouth as I could, which to my delight caused him to let out the most adorable little noises. Cheered on by his moans I began to bob my head quickly over his length while I palmed between my own legs.

As Marco's sounds escalated in volume I pulled myself off of his length. He gave a displeased noise in protest.

"Shhh, baby. Don't complain, naughty boys never get any treats." I scolded, reaching for the lube in the bed side table as I contemplated the words I had just spoken.

I giggled. "I can't believe I actually just said that sentence."

Marco gave out a chuckle despite himself. **I thought it was kind of sexy.**

"Kind of sexy? Well at least I was getting somewhere." I laughed it up some more as I lubed up my fingers for preparation.

"You ready?" I asked positioning my fingers at his hole when they were properly coated. He nodded which was my go ahead and I began. He was tighter than I expected but after I worked my fingers in he slowly but surely loosened up to the point where he was ready.

"Okay." I muttered, evening out my breathing as best as I could. "You're sure that you're ready?"

**Yes, Jean. I'm ready. **He smiled at me, leaning up on his elbows to peck me on the lips.

That was enough consent to urge me foreword, so I slowly pushed myself into him. "God. Does my cock feel good in your tight hole, baby? Oh, fuck sorry. Are you in pain? Is it okay to talk while I'm penetrating you?"

Marco gave me a sideways glance. **This isn't my first time and I asked you to dirty talk me so why stop now? **

"Right, sorry. I was just making sure." I pulled out half way before snapping my hips forward. "I wouldn't want to turn you off or anything at this point." Another thrust. "But I'll keep on flapping my gums while I fuck you if that's what you want." Another thrust. "How about I start out with praise or maybe worship." I picked up my pace a little bit.

"You're perfect and seeing you underneath me like this is just...wow. You're sexy as hell even out side the bedroom and those freckles of yours are just amazing. I could sit and count those for hours. You are also so well behaved too, you know that right? You put up with my friends and you're just a treasure to have around. I'd like to add that your cock is something anybody would be privileged to ride."

I continued to thrust into him, hitting his sweet spot every so often, causing him to cry out louder than he already was. "You're taking my cock so well and the noises that you're making are beautiful. Goddammit, you're so perfect and I'm not going to last much longer."

Marco forced my face down to his and we began a passionate but sloppy make out session. "God, I love you. I love you so much." I moaned into his mouth, biting his lower lip, "I'm gonna come."

With a few more sloppy kisses and thrusts I reached my peak and came. In my post-orgasm haze I gave Marco's length a few lethargic pumps and he too was sent over the edge.

After using the sheets for a half-assed clean up I slumped next to my boyfriend on the bed. "I guess I forgot the condom, sorry."

Marco pouted jokingly. **I guess I'm pregnant now. Well on the bright side I hope it's twins.**

I smacked him playfully on the arm. "We can name them Jean Junior and Jean Junior Junior." He and I giggled over my perfect name choices before I timidly asked if he'd enjoyed himself.

**I really did, thank you. This has been an amazing anniversary and if I ever happen to let you top again you'd better talk to me like you did tonight.**

I blushed a little at this but smiled anyway. "I'm glad you liked it. I had fun too, except for the ruined noodles. That wasn't fun." I leaned forward to leave a kiss on Marco's forehead. "Happy anniversary, my love."

**Happy anniversary to you too, Jean. He snuggled into my warmth completely content to fall asleep then and there.**

"Oh my god, Marco, I think I just felt Jean Junior Junior kick."

For that I was rewarded with a swift kick in the shin and a small giggle. Now this was the man who I had fallen in love with a year ago and this was the man I was planning to stay with. A very happy anniversary to us.

_I was born a fool on the run. I've broken hearts and lost at love._

_There's not one thing I would change or undo, 'cause all my life's been a road to you._


	27. Twenty- Seven: Shopping with Eren

_M__y summer vacation is over which totally sucks. I went back on Thursday, but don't worry because school won't change anything about updates or anything. It's just sad that I'm back in classes and stuff. Well anyway, this chapter (and maybe the next) is a bit Ereri-centric I mean Jean and Marco are still going to be in the chapters it's just that Eren and Levi are going to be very relevant as well. I hope that's okay. Ahh, alright then I've blabbed on too long._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_Note: I'm not overly fond of the way I ended this chapter, but just keep in mind that this is in a way setting up twenty-eight. I hope you still like this one either way._

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><p><strong>Twenty-Seven: Shopping with Eren<strong>

A couple of days after the bliss of mine and Marco's anniversary had faded, I received a text from Eren. The message was simple and all it did was request that he and I went out shopping together. Now, as you well know Eren and I don't always get along nor do I like shopping in the slightest, but some gut feeling told me that I may as well go out shopping with him. And that gut feeling is how I ended up in a mall food court having a conversation that I never thought I'd have in my life.

"Wait.. wait... sorry. Go back to the beginning and why did you pick me to help?" My eyebrows knit together as I stared unblinkingly at Eren who heaved a heavy sigh.

"This is the last time I'm explaining this, got it? I don't care what kind of shock you go into from hearing this news I'm not repeating it anymore." His turquoise eyes with met my golden ones, so I nodded him onward. "Okay. You and I are here at the mall today so that you can help me pick out a ring for Levi. Levi as in my boyfriend. Got that? I'm going to propose to him. I picked you to help me because... because you're my friend. Don't get any fucking sappy ideas because I said that though."

I took a thoughtful sip of my pop, "so, you actually count me as a friend then? You had to get ready to get hitched before you'd admit it, though." Eren punched my shoulder hard enough to probably leave a bruise. "Ouch, that fucking hurt, you ass. But in all seriousness I'm here to support you in whatever choices you make with buying any kind of jewelry for Levi."

His expression softened. "Thank you. The truth is I'm really nervous about asking him and I thought that you might be able to help me at least pick out a ring which will hopefully calm some of my anxieties."

"Or the ring could make you more anxious because after you buy it there's no turning back so that means you have to as-" I realized that Eren was death-staring me down and that I really wasn't helping. "Never mind. Let's go look in the jewelry store to calm your nerves." I stood and hurried away to throw out my garbage, but I could literally feel the daggers that were being stared into my back._

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><p>At the jewelry store Eren gawked at everything he saw whereas I stood near him nodding and mmhmmming in agreement whenever he said he thought something looked nice. By this point you know I don't like shopping. It's just not how I get my kicks, I find it boring and tedious, not to mention that I don't always have all that much wasting money laying around.<p>

It's not that I wasn't interested in looking at silver and gold wedding rings, it's just that this whole event was getting me thinking about Marco and I. Eren and Levi had been a thing for about two years but maybe we didn't move as fast in a relationship as they did. Sure, I'd love to marry Marco so I could sweep him off his feet and carry him out of the church with punk pop trash music playing us out, it's just that I'm not sure I'm ready. Obviously Jaeger is which kind of irks me. I hate the thought of him being ahead of me in... well anything.

"Earth to horse-face." Eren waved his hands around frantically. "I asked if you thought this one was nice." He pointed to a slightly ordinary silver wedding band.

"It's not very flashy or anything." I muttered, trying to stop my wild rushing train of thought to focus on the matter at hand.

"Levi's not a flashy guy. Sure, he's got some body mods, by he likes to keep most things simple." Eren paused and took a good long look at the small band of silver. "I'm going to purchase that one. I think it's perfect and maybe I could get it engraved before I give it to him."

"You know this man inside and out, if you think this one is the right one then get it and do an engraving thing too. Eren this is your man, you know what's good and what's not."

He nodded, slipping a glance at me. "That was mature coming from a kid like you."

"I'm a fucking month younger than you, now buy that stupid ring so that we can go to a bookstore or something."

"Like you know how to read, hun." He smirked at me as he pulled out his wallet to pay.

"The ice you're on is thin as fuck." I turned on my heel. "I'll be waiting outside when you're done."

With that I left him to go sit on one of those satanically uncomfortable mall benches and wait. Waiting gave me some time to think about this and that and Marco. I wondered about wedding rings. What colours would be good? Should we even go with rings? Maybe we could get tattoos? I didn't know at this point, I mean it's not like I'm ready to get down and my knee and propose next time I see him. At this point I really just needed to talk to him, because he may want something more along the lines of a civil partnership or maybe he didn't want anything of the sort.

I pushed those thoughts away from my head as Eren walked out of the store. He smiled, "now all I have to do is ask. Oh my god...now I have to ask." He paled slightly.

"Hey, come on, you can do it. It's just a question." I wrapped my arm around his shoulder in a semi-awkward way. "Levi is very fond of you. Remember when I first met him? You two were so affectionate towards each other, regardless of being in public. And just think, he lives with you and judging by the lube we all know you carry in your pocket you have a healthy sex life too. Plus, look at your face. Who could say no to a face like that."

"You're embarrassing." He mumbled slipping out of my arm. "Those words were encouraging though. I think I'm ready."

"I knew you would be. Now, how's about you and me go back to my apartment. Marco's busy tonight so we could order Chinese or maybe pizza later on."

"What about the book store?"

"Like you said, I can't read. On the other hand if you did come over we could do some research on engagement and such things."

Teeth gnawed gently on his bottom lip as he thought my offer over. "Put meat on the pizza and I'm in."

"Meat it is then, lover boy. Now, let's get to work."

It was going to be a long couple hours of googling, but at least my research to help Eren could help me out at a later date after I discussed some things with Marco. Oddly enough, I was excited.


	28. Twenty-Eight: Proposals and Days Off

_P__art two of the Ereri-centric chapters. It's time for the proposal and then everything will go back in it's JeanMarco direction (not that this chapter doesn't have JeanMarco because it does, I promise). So like I said last time, I apologize if Ereri isn't your cup of tea just keep in mind it's one chapter. Alright then, let's get on with the story as usual._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing_

_Enjoy._

_Levi is in this chapter so if you're having trouble understand what he's saying here are the translations:_

_1. Theem- Seem 2. Thavinth- Savings 3. Thomething- Something 4. What'th- What's 't- Isn't 6. Chrithtmath- Christmas 7. Tho- So 8. What'th- What's 8. Thith- This 9. Yeth- Yes 10. Pleathe- Please 11. Jutht- Just 12. Yeth- Yes 13. Thtupid- Stupid_

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><p><strong>Twenty-Eight: Proposals and Days Off<strong>

"Hey Marco, can we talk?"

It was about a week after Eren and I went out shopping that he and I decided that we would go out on a double date so he could propose. That day was also when I chose to sit Marco down to have a serious conversation with him.

**Sure, what's up?**

I smiled as he came and sat next to me, "I just wanted to ask you something." I paused. "So you and I are going out with Eren and Levi tonight, right? Do you have any idea what this date might...entail?"

He shook his head. **No, I assumed we were just going out to eat.**

"Well we are, but there's more to it. We're not just going out to any old burger joint, Eren's actually going all out on this one because he wants his proposal to go well."

**Proposal? **Marco's eyes widened. **Oh my god. Him and Levi? No way!**

"Yes way." I grinned. "But that's why I wanted to talk to you, because I helped with the picking out of the ring and that got me thinking. I just really wanted to ask you about us... and your thoughts on marriage and whatnot."

**You mean you and me?**

"Well... yeah." I paused for a minute, "just a heads up, this isn't my proposal to you I just wanted us to like think about some possibilities." I chuckled slightly at my own awkwardness and waited for my reply.

**Well, if this were you asking me at this exact moment in time, I'd say yes. You're not though so I guess I can't say anything.**

I stopped in my tracks and turned bright red at his reply. "You..- you'd actually say yes? Are you leading me on?"

**No, I'm serious. If you asked I would say yes and then maybe we could wait a while before we officially tied any knots but the main point here is that yes means yes here.**

"Wow, baby... that's just wow." I laughed and clapped my hands over either side of his face before kissing him full on the lips forcefully. "I'm holding you to this for when I do ask, by the way."

**You'd better. I might like a ring if you ever do ask, though. **He smiled, pecking me gently on the lips in retaliation.

"Don't you worry about a ring. It'll be beautiful. Trust me."

**You're too sweet. Now, that you've got that off your chest why don't we go hop in the shower. We've got time right?**

"Oh, we've definitely got time." I smirked despite the flush that was slowly dusting my cheeks._

* * *

><p>A couple hours after our shower (and... other activities) found Marco and I sitting across from each other at some fancy restaurant with a foreign name. Marco was looking insanely cute and dapper in his fancy dress shirt with a large smile across his freckled face.<p>

Eren and Levi weren't looking too shabby either. Though Eren was starting to look a little disheveled from his constant throat clearing and tie adjusting.

"You theem off tonight, Eren. You haven't eaten a bite. Are you feeling under the weather?"

"Huh?" Eren adjusted his tie again, "no no no. It's, no, I'm fine." He took a sip of his water.

Levi raised a thin pierced eyebrow before sliding his gaze away from his boyfriend to me. We locked eyes for a moment before he shrugged and went back to picking at his food. "Alright then. If you feel like blowing all your thavingth on thomething you're not gonna eat then go ahead."

After that comment we became slightly silent. Marco, Levi and I ate whereas Eren dragged his food around his plate only taking a bite every so often.

"I can't do this anymore," he muttered, setting down his fork with a dramatic sigh.

Levi looked at him with confusion. Marco and I looked up from our food as well knowing full well what was about to go down.

"What'th going on?"

Eren stood, walking around the table to where Levi sat. "Shh, just go with it. Look, I love you a lot, man. Fuck...did-did I just call you man?" Eren reached up to fix his tie.

Levi narrowed his eyes, his thin eyebrows furrowed. "What are you on about?"

"Nothing! I just bought you something and I want you to have it..."

"You know my birthday ithn't until Chrithtmath, tho what'th thith about?"

"This is a proposal, Levi." Eren almost shouted, clapping his hands over his mouth seconds later.

Levi sat, his stoic expression changed to that of pure surprise. "Thith ith a what?"

"Damn, look... I really love you, Levi. I love your piercings and your slightly bored expressions. Hell, I love the fact that when we first met I mocked your lisp, you punched me and then we went out for coffee. But umm, that's beside the point because I went out shopping with Queerstien the other day and we bought a ring for you, so now I hope the reason behind the fancy dinner is clear. I feel like I'm getting side tracked, so will you-"

"Yeth, Eren. Pleathe jutht shut up. I'll marry you, you idiot."

"Really?" Eren asked, surprise evident in his eyes.

"Yeth, you thtupid fuck." Levi laughed.

You can probably guess what happened next. Jaeger started to cry while he and Levi hugged as we watched from the sidelines.

"So that was a success." I told Marco while we continued to watch the couple in front of us.

**Are you going to pull something on me now? **He smirked

"Sorry, not for a while yet."

**Alright then. **Marco leaned forward to peck me on the cheek.

I smiled, "not to change the subject, my dear, but do you think Eren would care if I stole some of his meat?"

Marco thought for a moment,** I doubt it. **I shrugged, taking some food from his plate.

In the end after Levi and Eren had calmed down from the proposal and had stopped staring at each other through rose-coloured glasses Eren did notice that I took some of his food and I got hit for it. Well, I guess this night was looking kind of eventful night, right?


	29. Twenty-Nine: You, Me and a Vacation

_H__i hi, it's me and this time around it's JeanMarco! Anyway, this chapter is set somewhere two or three days after the big Ereri proposal and is (as I said before) one hundred percent unadulterated JeanMarco._

_In all seriousness though, I loved writing this chapter which was a relief because I found the last two kind of hard and I wasn't too happy with the finished product, but I'm actually proud of this one! Sorry, this is long now._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

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><p><strong>Twenty-Nine: You, Me and a Vacation<strong>

It's weird to wake up and find a suit-case half packed with your belongings. It's even weirder to find that your very own boyfriend is the one shoveling everything you own into said suitcase.

"Why are you stealing my underwear?" I groggily asked, propping myself up on my elbows.

My vision was blurry due to my lack of glasses but I was able to make out some of Marco's clothes were shoved in there too. I had no clue why he was packing anything, though I willed away the panic in my chest by telling myself that if he were running away he wouldn't want to take my dirty ass shirts with him.

**Oh, hello! Good to see you're awake. Could you go grab our toothbrushes and whatever other toiletries we may need for the next couple days.**

"Huh?" I rubbed my eyes a couple times before pinching the bridge of my nose. "Why do we need toiletries and why are you packing our stuff? I swear to god, baby, if you're some sort of drug dealing gang member and you're forcing me out of my apartment, then I'm breaking up with you."

**Would your slightly biblical freckled boyfriend do something like that, now? I think not. Go get our things, I promise when you get back I'll be finished packing and I'll explain.**

Feeling too lethargic to put up any sort of fight whatsoever I dragged my bones out of bed in search of the essential things Marco and I would need for whatever the hell it was he had planned. I grabbed toothbrushes and deodorant among other important things. When I actually made it back to the bedroom I had far to much in my arms, so I let it spill onto the bed without any grace.

"Okay, explain please, baby."

Marco's glance flicked down to the mess I had made on the bed for a split second before a grin broke out on his face. **We're going on a vacation!**

"A vacation? But I have work..."

**A vacation suggests that you take time away from work, dummy. I have everything sorted out, so don't worry, okay? You and I are heading out to a cabin where we are going to spend time together. Just you and me. It's my treat.**

I raised and eyebrow as he spoke and broke into a broad smile as he finished. "This is really fucking sweet, Marco. I could just kiss you right now!"

**Well if you insist. **He signed with a daring look in his eye.

I moved forward placing my lips over top of his, throwing as much passion and as many thank yous into the kiss as I could.

Marco absentmindedly drew a pattern on my chest. **You should kiss me like that again, but we should be in our little cabin before hand. **

"But if we head for this so called vacation spot so early then you'll have to deal with my singing, wouldn't you rather make out?" I winked at him in a cheesy manner.

**I love your singing, so let's get driving.**

I sighed.

**After you pack the toiletries that is.**

I sighed even louder.

* * *

><p>An hour later found Marco and I in a packed rental car cruising towards our destination. As promised I sang loudly to whatever came on the radio and Marco giggled andor hummed along.

It was times like these where I really just needed to take a moment to appreciate what I had. Not in a sappy way, though, more in the way of; I wouldn't feel like me if I didn't have a partner like Marco. He was the reason I learned how to sign, he was the reason why I was in this very car speeding towards some cottage. Hell, he was the first person I'd ever even considered a future with. Since Marco stepped into my life with his sketch pads and little notes the skies in my life that I never even realized were grey were brightened to a brilliant blue.

I was kicked out of my thoughts and absent minded humming by Marco repeatedly snapping his fingers and signing, **turn turn!**

"Turn? what?" I jerked the wheel and made an awkward turn left. Thankfully, there was no traffic coming. I hit the breaks once we were safely surrounded by the trees on the drive way leading towards where we were staying.

"Turn. That was almost bad." I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly.

**Yeah, really. **Marco exhaled a breath that he'd been holding in. **It wouldn't kill them to make the entrance more visible from the road, huh?**

"Tell me about it." I started up the car again and so we began going down the bumpy driveway towards the cottages. The drive itself wasn't too long, but finding out which wooden building was supposed to be ours made up for it. They all looked so similar, but finally we found that ours was secluded and further away from the others.

Together we scoped out the inside and I was pleasantly surprised by how homey it was. It had a small bedroom with a bathroom off of it and the living room was connected to a tiny little kitchen. We were definitely going to be able to get used to this place.

"Wow, Marco." I breathed, leaning over the railing of the deck, "you've really outdone yourself on this one. This place sure as hell beats working inside with Ymir for a couple of hours."

**That's the point of a vacation. It beats working with your friends. **Marco smiled, leaning in to kiss me gently on the cheek.

"Mmmm. I would suggest we go unpack the car, but I have better ideas." I gently grabbed his shirt collar and brought in back into the cottage.

Cute vacation spot, gotta christen it, right?

You can probably guess what happened next and if your guess was correct than you can also likely assume that we fell asleep afterwards. With all this in mind it only makes sense for Marco and I to just barely drag ourselves out of bed to grab the luggage from the car in time for the sunset.

I stood with a suitcase in hand and looked at the vibrant sky above me. "It's pretty out."

Marco made a humming noise of agreement in the back of his throat.

I set the suitcase down, plunking myself on the grass beside it. "Sit with me, I haven't watched the sun go down in forever."

He did as I asked, leaning his body against mine as we watched the red, orange, pink and purple skyline change and get progressively darker.

"What would I do without you, baby?" The question slipped off my tongue unintentionally.

**Crash and burn. But don't worry, because I would too. **We went silent after that, continuing to watch the sky.

This was going to be one hell of a vacation. Three days in a cabin on the outskirts of Trost wasn't what I was expecting to happen when I woke up, but sitting here watching this designer skyline with the love of my life I'm glad it did.


	30. Thirty: Quiet Mornings &Peaceful Nights

_I __can't believe I'm sitting down and writing the thirtieth chapter for something that was supposed to be a oneshot. Seriously, thirty is a big number and I could never have reached writing this many chapters without all you lovely people! Now I guess I have to give the not so good news and that is that after this chapter there are only six more reaming to be written. Yeah, this tale is winding to a close and I'm going to be very sad, but I'll have more to say about that fact on a later date. Enough with the emotions, let's get on with what you're here for._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing. _

_Enjoy!_

_P.S I feel like the chapter name came out a little unfitting, but I think it sounds so artsy and professional that I'm not giving up the chance to use it! Also, P.P.S for anyone who cares to read the far: the end of this chapter was totally just for a giggle, so I'm sorry of it doesn't feel like a real ending. I tried._

* * *

><p><strong>Thirty: Quiet Mornings and Peaceful Nights<strong>

The very next morning (or should I say afternoon) found Marco and I in our cozy little cabin, lounging on the bed with white sheets wrapped around us and pillows strewn about. You see, we had stayed up star gazing the night before and had barely dragged our weary bones into suitable sleeping areas before the sky began to get light, so waking up early just wasn't going to be an option. That's why the two of us were still rubbing sleep out of our eyes and yawning at one in the afternoon.

"Are you alive?" I asked, slipping my glasses over my face so I could see properly. I blinked a few times at how HD the world now was before a yawn ripped through my diaphragm.

**I guess so. **Marco stretched, his back, shoulders and god knows what else popping in the process

"That's good to hear because I hate eating alone...or with dead bodies for that matter." I muttered simply as I coaxed myself out of bed and into the tiny kitchen where I blindly grabbed for food. I came back with an assortment of things that I let fall onto the bedspread. "Bon appétit."

Brown eyes were rubbed in confusion (and/or possibly tiredness). Fruit Loops breakfast cereal, pop tarts, some cold hot dogs, granola bars and a bottle of ketchup.

**This is healthy, Jean.**

"Baby, it's too early to make healthy eating choices so hush up and drink your ketchup." I cracked a lazy smile at him.

**Yeah, I'll drink mine as soon as you drink yours. **He leaned over simultaneously planting a kiss on my cheek and grabbing a granola bar. He ripped the packaging open with his teeth before taking a tentative bite. It couldn't of been too bad since he shrugged and continued chewing.

"I'd offer to make toaster waffles but I don't want to leave the comfort of this bed again and anyway I thought we could discuss some things over breakfast." I pushed the ketchup bottle towards Marco and winked.

**I don't know what your getting at, but I don't want your tomato paste to be involved. We can talk, but no condiments are we clear?**

I dramatically sighed, moving the bottle away. "Whatever. No tomato paste." I paused, "but I still wanna talk though."

**You want to talk a lot as of late. Why so serious?**

I shrugged, trying to will away the blush creeping up my cheeks. "We've just been together for a goodly amount of time now and I... I want to make sure we're making the right choices, so that's why I feel like we need to sit and talk about things. You know like proposals and... maybe moving in together?"

**Is that our new topic?**

"Yeah... I mean you basically live in my apartment so I thought to myself 'why the hell not.'" I scratched the back of my neck, "if you're not down with that then that's okay too."

**Well, splitting the rent doesn't seem half bad and I'd like to have all my stuff in one place. If we planned this out carefully... then sure, I'd love to move in with you!**

"Are you even for real, Marco? You're literally the most saintly and agreeable human being I've ever had the pleasure of dating. Moving in'll be easy and I'll even carry the heavy boxes for you."

**Sure you will.** Marco smirked.

"Yeah, I actually will."

A dark eyebrow was raised in a look of disbelief.

"Okay, if you won't believe me then we're gonna make this a challenge. Who ever comes first is carrying the heavy boxes on moving day."

**Bring it.**

* * *

><p>I think it goes without saying that I lost that challenge severely. Marco was able to tear me down and build me back up in ways I don't feel like mentioning, but I guess in the grand scheme of things one hella orgasm is worth carrying a few heavy boxes.<p>

Anyway, after that whole event transpired Marco and I decided that we may as well take a walk down to the lake that our cabin sat near. This was a romantic idea and theory but just ended up being torture for me. First the bugs that only seemed to want to attack me and then the roots and rocks that kept jumping in my way. Second the sun was literally scorching hot. Like demonically hot. Thirdly... well, I don't really have a third point to make because as soon as I saw the lake up close it was absolutely beautiful and worth the tripping and bugs.

"I think this body of water is just too pretty for skinny-dipping." I said, toeing off my sandals and stepping towards the water to dip my feet in.

Marco didn't reply, instead he too kicked off his shoes and stepped into the lake.

The water was just the right temperature to be refreshing on a day like today, so of course I started a splash war that soaked the both of us to the bone.

**Is that the best you got?** A wave a water hit me.

"You're so fucking on!"

In between all the splashing and laughing he and I both ended up on our backsides in ankle deep water.

I smiled, "I think you're wetter than I am, therefor the heavy boxes are back on your shoulders." I sent a tiny splash in his direction.

**Yeah right. The deal was whoever came first and that was you. I'm not carrying anything heavy.** He swished some water in my direction.

I sighed loudly, laying myself down so that I could float on the surface. "Whatever. I'm expecting you to help me with all the back pain I'm going to get, though."

**Yeah, yeah.** Marco smirked sarcastically, winking at me.

"Okay, baby. Now, shut up and and lay with me."

He wrinkled his nose in the sweetest way possible. **I'll get wet.**

"Darling, you're already wet."

No fight could be made against that, so he placed himself so that his head rested on my stomach.

"Comfy?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Good." I muttered, letting my thoughts wander to what we may or may not do that night. Maybe we could make a bonfire, or we could stargaze again. The possibilities were endless and with the content sentimental feeling I had in the pit of my stomach I was open to anything.

"Hey, Marco?"

**Yeah?**

"I love you." I signed as I spoke.

**I know, I love you too**. He signed back, making an attempt to mouth the words, though his attempt didn't work out too well. I smiled at him for trying either way.

"Hey, Marco?" I repeated not too long after.

**Yeah?**

"Can we maybe get out now? This water is so nice, but I'm starting to feel like a prune..."


	31. Thirty-One: This Time Last Year

_H__ello everyone. I honestly don't know when this chapter is going to be uploaded (you see I write my authors notes before the chapter itself. Hence all the P.S's) because I'm going to be busy for the next little while with family events, but at this point it's probably late. So I'll apologize for that and try to get myself back on track of writing... not that there are many more chapters left. Anyway, I'm no good with excuses or anything so I'll just give you this chapter and hope everything's okay._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing. _

_Enjoy._

_P.S. This one is short I know. I'm just really pressed for time and I had to upload at some point in the week. I hope you all understand. Thanks._

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><p><strong>Thirty-One: This Time Last Year<strong>

Not all that long after the time spent in the vacation cottage Marco and I decided to get our shit together and commence the moving in project. To make the whole idea complete we had to finish a fair amount of paperwork (to sell the old apartment that is) and drag a lot (and by a lot I mean a whole fucking lot) of boxes up flights of stairs (because you know the elevator HAD to be repaired this specific week).

As promised I carried most of the heavy boxes and trust me a lot of swearing came out of that, especially when I dropped a box filled with art supplies straight down onto my foot. That hurt, and I may have even shed a manly tear or two. Eventually though, between Marco, some burly moving guys and I we got everything up into my apartment. All that was left after that was to find a place for everything that was stashed in all those boxes and that was going to be a challenge. A challenge that could wait for later that is.

"So there you have it baby," I stated placing the last box onto the coffee table. "All the heavy boxes have been carried by little old me and we're all moved in."

**Look at you mister muscles. I bet you're not even sore yet.**

"Actually, I am kinda sore. The last box wasn't exactly light. What was in it, anyway?"

**Knick-knacks and photo albums mostly, I think.** Marco leaned forward. He took the box off the table and shook it lightly. Some rustling could be heard from inside, so he shrugged and tore off the tape to see what he would find.

To no ones surprise the box contained exactly what Marco thought it would. A collection of assorted random objects and two albums. One appeared to be some sort of family baby book since it said Marco in big bold letters, the other I recognized to be the one I gifted to Marco last Christmas.

"I'm claiming these." I swooped in and snatched both the books from the package. "I want to see all your embarrassing tub pictures from when you were a wee lad."

A plus for me at this point though. I mean seriously, I just finished moving in with a cute guy and the first thing I do afterwards is look at pictures of him when he still had chubby cheeks and gaps in his front teeth. I guess this was just our relationship at this point... well I believe our relationship was always something like this. That's not a problem though, I mean this photo album was the cutest thing ever.

"Oh look at you from grade primary. You're the fucking cutest."

I ran my fingers over a page that was filled with pictures of a very young Marco. His freckles and dark hair were as prominent as ever, though his hair was shaggier and fell in front of his eyes in a majority of the pictures. I turned some more pages, seeing pictures of him throughout his years of life. There were graduation pictures and snapshots of Marco and his friends and family from Jinae. There was even one very small photo attached to a page near the back the held the image of Marco's late mother holding a frustrated looking baby in her arms. She was beautiful, much like her son, with the same doe eyes and hair type. I would have like to meet her of things were different.

Marco cleared his throat and I realized I'd been staring too long. My cheeks heated up and I muttered a quick 'she was beautiful' before turning to look at the next page. Marco nodded solemnly and I felt as of I'd just created an awkward atmosphere.

"Look here, you fell asleep in your own birthday cake." I nodded towards a collection of pictures from Marco's first birthday to try and brighten everything up. "You've got blue frosting everywhere and I literally want to cannibalize those chubby cheeks."

Marco looked slightly distraught at the thought of cannibalism before he reached for the photo album. **I think you've seen enough now.**

"No, baby!" I whined making grabby hands towards the book. "You can't take that away. I'm so not done looking."

**Jean, you are _so_ done looking.**

"No! But what about your shaggy kindergarten hair? And all those cute pictures of you growing up. I won't even mention the punk phase pictures again if you let me keep looking. These are precious memories Marco."

**Fine, go ahead and keep looking. It's not like there are all that many pages left anyway.**

"You're a saint among men, because I wouldn't let anyone look at my pictures like this. That is if my parents still have any pictures of me"

Marco swatted my shoulder.

"Owww. I'm sore! Remember all those heavy boxes I carried.?"

**Sorry.** Marco signed, kissing my cheek to make up for it.

"You're forgiven. Though, I could go for another kiss." I sat up straighter, hope glinting in my eyes. "Maybe on the lips. Or... in bed." It should be noted at this point that I probably have no shame.

**I'll have to save that for later. I have boxes to unpack and since we share this place I could use a little help. **

"Oh, but I'm looking at teeny-tiny Bodt pictures." I held up the album backtracking more than slightly to try and get out of unpacking.

**Too bad then, no kisses or bed.**

"You just don't want me looking at your photos anymore do you?"

**Nope.**

"Fine. I guess these boxes aren't going to unpack themselves." I set the book down on the sofa and stood. "One last thing before we unpack though..."

**What would that be?**

I gripped Marco's back firmly and dipped him, placing a passionate kiss atop his lips.

"Welcome to our new apartment." I paused. "Also, you were a really fucking adorable kid."


	32. Thirty-Two: Sleepless Nights in July

_J__uly is officially over, in the story at least because outside of this fanfiction July has been over for a long while. Well anyway, I'm kind of sad to announce that this is the final smut chapter of this story, so I hope this is extra pleasing and if it's not... well I guess there are always other smut chapters to re-read._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Warning: If you didn't already know this is your fair warning that this chapter contains two men having sex. It's not insanely descriptive, but if this is a problem in anyway please don't read this one because it's not for you. Thanks._

_Enjoy._

_Songs Mentioned: Drift Away- Dobie Gray & Hit Me Baby One More Time- Britney Spears_

* * *

><p><strong>Thirty-Two: Sleepless Nights in July<strong>

_"Gimme the beat boys and free my soul. I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away." _

The slow beat drifted across our bedroom from a mix CD that I had made at age sixteen. I hummed along to the familiar song as I wove my fingers through Marco's dark hair. This had become a thing lately, listening to music and basking in each other. You see, at some point when he and I were cleaning up around the apartment after he moved in we stumbled across a box of CDs and Mixtapes and had proceeded to listen to them on and off every couple of evenings. To my credit I actually wasn't half bad at making these compilations and then burning them onto CDs. The one featuring a cover of Drift Away that we were listening to on this particular night was probably the best that younger me had made so far. That is it was amazing until a song that I honestly forgot existed began playing at the loudest volume it possibly could.

_"Oh baby, baby... Oh baby, baby."_

"Oh hell no." I tugged my fingers out of Marco's hair and took a dive for the speakers before the infectious ear worm chorus began, but alas my dive was too late and it had already begun.

_"My loneliness is killing me and I- I must confess, I still believe, still-"_

"Plug your innocent ears, baby! It's too late for me, save yourself." I cried, hitting the pause button regardless of how stuck in my head the song already was anyway.

**It's just a song. Quit acting like it's the end of everything.**

"Oh, you say it's just a song now, but when I start singing it during sex later you're going to go limp and then what? You're gonna be so turned off and then what're you gonna do?"

Marco giggled, probably at my frankness at this point. **First off when I'm working my magic on you, you shouldn't be able to remember your middle name let alone a song that was made over six years ago. Secondly I'm not going to be turned off by you singing, stupid. I love that voice of yours more than anything, even if you can't hit all the high notes.**

I turned red around the ears. "I knew you loved my voice. " I cleared my throat "I mean you completely lost it when I dirty talked you on our anniversary."

Marco elbowed me as he snickered. **That was hot, okay? Now why don't we forget about Britney Spears for a while and get down to well... whatever it was that you were planning. **

"I was planning some intense blowjobs and then maybe some-" I winked and made shooting noises. "Pew pew. Hardcore adult stuff. Ya know like Minecraft."

**Are you even an adult, Jean?**

"Asks the friendly guy who keeps a box of action figures and teddy bears under the bed."

**Oh, touché.**

* * *

><p>"Fucking god, Marco." I groaned, thrashing around as best as I could while said male pounded me into next Tuesday. He roughly jerked me along with his rhythm. The sheer amount of pleasure had me flushing and almost crying.<p>

Okay before I go on with that I guess I should maybe fill in some gaps here. Marco and I talked a little bit more before we began the sloppy seconds, which I guess turned into sloppy minutes with some groping added in for extra effect. From then on came the fore-play which as usual was mind blowing. All the little touches in all the right places with the proper amount of simulation. I'll leave the rest up for you to imagine. Of course all the touching underneath where the bathing suit goes lead to a fucking A plus blowjob that included all the tugging and sucking of places where I just adore it. He tongued me and worshiped me and just fucking made me feel like the king of the world with that mouth of his.

As usual he let me off the hook while I was on the verge of having the most glorious orgasm so that he could prepare himself (as well as me) for penetration. Now you're basically caught up to the point where I was thrashing around whilst singing Marco's name like a hymn.

My legs were shaking from the jolts of electric pleasure I was getting from Marco. His steady pace in and out as well as his hand on my cock threatened to send me over the edge and back.

"Holy fuck, baby," I gasped hitting my hand off the bed in defeat. "Go faster, yeah. Just a little bit more and I'll- Oh holy fuck, yes!"

Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes as I was sent over the edge. I let a choked sob escape my lips as I shook in the aftermath of my orgasm. Marco finished himself off not long after with a number of thrusts.

"Well fuck me, that was fucking intense."

He pulled himself out to chuck away the condom and clean us up. I involuntarily shivered at this.** I think I already did, but I agree, that_ was_ intense.**

I chuckled. "Heck yeah. Well anyway, that almost made me forget about that fucking song. I guess maybe if we went another round I could completely forget it again and live a happy life. Maybe I could even top as well."

It was Marco's turn to chuckle.** If it'll guide you into something happy and make you forget Britney Spears then I guess I"ll just have to say yes.**

I kissed him, "you've just improved my life survival rate by ten. No twenty."

He laughed again. **Hurry it up then if you want to improve mine.**

"Yes, sir." I licked my lips quickly before placing them on top of his again.

Let's just say that by the end of the night both of our life survival rates were brought up by quite a fucking lot and it was so worth it. That god damned song also left my head by the end of the night by some miracle.


	33. Thirty-Three: Sleepy Mornings in August

_T__his is what I like to call a 'snap-shots chapter', it's all the little moments of a certain time period mashed into one small chapter. Some snippets are short and some are long. Yes, this means time skips, but bear with me since there are only three more chapters after this one (I just made myself sad from typing that). Anyway, on a happier note this chapter is filled to the brim with all our favorite side characters as well as our main character love-birds._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_Levi is briefly in this chapter, so here are the translations for what he's saying._

_1. Thtop- Stop 2. Drawingth- Drawings_

_Songs Mentioned: Road to You- Five for Fighting_

* * *

><p><strong>Thirty-Three: Sleepy Mornings in August<strong>

I believe I said it once that August is the month where every student realizes the amount of time and days that they wasted doing nothing and try to make up for it in the span of a month. I also believe that last year I said that I was an exception to that. That's right, I did. This time last year I was proud that I'd gotten a boyfriend who inspired me to take classes to learn a whole new language, I had also saved up a fair amount of money from my job. So, thinking about it now, I guess my accomplishments for July this year weren't all that much different. I kept said boyfriend and showed him what I'd learned in the way of his language. As for money I guess I could have raised some more, but I've still got time. All in all at this point, July had been pretty good and I had my hopes high for August as well.

* * *

><p>"Watch it!" Sasha screeched as she flung a hose (that was squirting large amounts of water everywhere) across her new yard, spraying everyone who was standing around in the process.<p>

You may be wondering why a group of college kids were standing around in a backyard being splashed by an out of control hose and the answer is that Sasha and Connie actually settled down together and bought a house. Yes, that literally means that these two maniacs own property that they live on which kind of makes them... adults. Now that's frightening. Aside from that thought though, since the two of them were all moved in they invited most of their friends over to have a backyard party of types and that's when the hose came out.

"Oi, potatoes, if you want this to become an all out brawl then you are so on." Ymir taunted back, moving for the hose.

"Oh, it's so on, mama." Sasha held her arms up and braced herself for what was to come. But it never came, or at least it never came to her. At this point we all know Ymir is a total ass-hat, so I shouldn't have been surprised when the ice-cold blast of water hit me full on.

I was stunned for a good thirty seconds while Ymir had dropped her weapon and started laughing. This gave Sasha her chance to get revenge, by not pointing the hose at Ymir but by showering me for a second time. This got everyone, even Marco, laughing.

Sighing, I laughed along too, though in my head I was plotting revenge.

You see, two sprays of water from a hose was bound to turn into a war with the group of people that were gathered there on that day, and after the short break of chuckling it very well did. Connie busted out the Super Soakers and the sprinklers were turned on and thus The Great Water War began. This is also were my revenge plot (which was the simple drive to own all those who have wronged me) kicked in. And of course a matter if minutes later it failed.

It just so happens that in this particular battle if you get soaked from head to toe and/or feel as if you cannot go on any longer you're out. Naturally I thought I could put up a fair fight and get my revenge, but in the end I fell into a sprinkler while trying to escape a fatal spraying. I guess falling and getting wet was worth it in the end, because from the sidelines I got to see Marco kick some serious ass.

I don't know where Marco's skills came from, but he brutally destroyed Connie, Reiner and (believe it or not) Annie. I fanboyed hardcore for him even after he silently met his tragic end. Eren unfortunately snuck up on him from behind, soaking and destroying him. A warrior had fallen... or at least came had come to the sidelines with me.

The Great Water War didn't rage on much longer until that last two people were standing. Sasha and Eren were alone together, pistols at the ready. Due to my oath of secrecy I can't say who won that day, but I will say the the female gender reigned dominate that evening.

* * *

><p>"Holy shit! Holy shit, holy shit." Marco and I stood on top of the couch in the living room, clutching each other.<p>

Why would two grown men like us be doing such a thing? A murderer? A ghost? Levi without his morning coffee from the café? Nope. A spider.

Yes, a gigantic furry brown long-legged spider that was made of death sadness and nightmares was crawling across the wall parallel to us. It's monstrous eight legs carried it quickly towards the corner.

I gulped, "Marco..."

His eyes widened as he stared into mine. **Jean...**

"Are you watching the bug?"

**No... are you?**

"No." I snuck a glance at the wall where the spider had just been. "It's fucking gone! Oh god damn! Where did it go?" I searched the room frantically until I found it striding nastily across the wall closest to the sofa we were on.

"Fuck no!" I shrieked and dashed as fast as my legs could take me into the next room, wanting to save my own skin so much that I forgot about Marco completely.

* * *

><p>"Here you go, freckles," Ymir placed a cup of tea down in front of Marco. "It's on the house since I just saw Jean slipping some cash into the register for you."<p>

Marco raised an eyebrow but bowed his head to Ymir, thanking her for the drink. He raised the cup to his lips and took a sip. His face wrinkled around the nose and mouth before he reached to add in a few more packets of sugar. He took another swig. This one tasted better because a smile graced his lips.

Days like this were what Marco liked. He enjoyed chilling out, drinking tea and being with Jean when things weren't to busy. He loved watching the sunset from his seat and then walking home with Jean in the dark after closing up shop. This café as a whole was just a place that Marco liked. Before he walked in that day he was a newbie, a nobody, basically friendless, unable to communicate and in a new town, but once he left he'd gained a friend, gotten a possible boyfriend, had someone to talk to and he felt less alone in the world. This simple building for hot drinks and pastries had improved just about everything.

"What're you thinking about?" I asked, slipping into the booth opposite Marco. I'd obviously just crashed his train of thought.

**Nothing much. **He signed. **I'm just feeling nostalgic, I guess. **

"That's always fun." I replied simply, leaning forward to clutch his hands with my own.

"Jean. It's not break yet, so what are you doing?" Eren called from the kitchen.

"I was having a moment with my boyfriend before you so rudely interrupted." I quipped. "Sorry, duty calls." I added, bringing my mouth to Marco's hand. My lips brushed the skin gently before I was up and back to my duties again, leaving Marco and his thoughts in peace.

* * *

><p>"Who's idea was this again?" I asked, flicking my glance over to Eren.<p>

"Levi and Marco's," he said matter-of-factly.

"Right." I said as if I had totally known that already. "And they wanted to do this... why?"

"Because they wanted to sketch and they needed models. It's an artist thing, Jean. I don't understand it."

"Thtop talking. If you move you'll fuck up the drawingth." Levi pointed his pencil between the two of us. Marco nodded in agreement.

"Sorry." We droned at the same time, both wishing that we could stretch.

* * *

><p>I yawned, fanning myself. "The fan is a total bitch for breaking down during a heat-wave."<p>

**I doubt the fan did such a thing on purpose**. Marco suggested.

"You're in cahoots with the broken fan, I bet."

Marco sighed, handing me an ice cube.** It's too bad, you found me and the fan out! Whatever will I do now?**

"You probably won't be doing much in heat like this other than dying a dehydrated death." I muttered, sucking thoughtfully on my ice cube.

**Cheery, really. **

"I know ri-iiiigh- Jesus you've got cold freaking fingers!" I gasped as Marco rested his chilled hands on the back of my neck. "If I weren't as hot as I am I'd probably be complaining, but right now I want you to cool me off... like everywhere."

Needless to say, Marco's hands weren't so cold when we finished. They actually got really heated up, just like the rest of him.

* * *

><p>Marco pouted as tears pricked the corners of his eyes. <strong>It hurts.<strong>

"Yes, baby. That's what sunburn does." I told him whilst I gently rubbed cream onto all areas where his skin had reddened.

**I could have sworn I wore sunscreen. Now it hurts whenever I move. I can't even sign comfortably.**

Lovingly, I kissed an exceptionally bad spot on his shoulder. "Lay back and take it easy, okay? Hows about I put on a movie while I finish fixing you up? It'll take your mind off the pain some."

He nodded pitifully, sniffling as he did so.

* * *

><p>Hips swayed. Hands intertwined. Feet moved.<p>

_'I was born a fool on the run. I've broken hearts and lost at love...-'_

Shoulders swayed. Knees bent. Bodies danced.

_'-...There's not one thing I would change or undo, 'cause all my life's been a road to you.'_

Marco and I were dancing alone in our apartment. Swaying around to a sentimental song, singing (or humming) along as we moved to the rhythm. My partner rested his head on my chest as we moved around our living room.

"This is going to be our wedding song." The comment unintentionally rolled off my tongue.

I got a look that said something along the lines of_ 'no shit Sherlock'_, but I'm sure saintly Marco would have worded in nicer than that.

Our conversation faded away after that little nothing. We continued to dance in blissful semi-silence, lost in the moment and likely each other.

* * *

><p>August was winding down after this point and a new school year was just around the corner. As I hoped, I spent time with my loved ones and had a blast all through out my second summer month. At this point only a couple months lay ahead before yet another new year, and though I don't quite know what they have in store, I did have some ideas. One of them involved a ring.<p> 


	34. Thiry-Four: A Letter To Mummy and Daddy

_I__ don't have much to say about this one other than I tried to make it realistic. This chapter isn't about fluff and romance. In a way it's more about family, or in Jean's case a lack thereof. I will warn you that there are mentions of homophobia with other things along the lines of such, so please steer clear of this if that's triggering in any way. As a side note I'd like to add that writing gay slurs literally kills me inside._

_Also, Jean's anger and whether or not he actually sends the letter is up to you as a reader to decide. Weather he wrote the right things or not, that's up for you to choose. I want this to be open for interpretation._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

_Side Note Part 2: I have no clue when I will be uploading next, but chances are it won't be before the holiday. So from the bottom of my heart everyone, happy holidays! I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating that which you enjoy and I hope you all get some time off of school/work._

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><p><strong>Thirty-Four: A Letter To Mummy and Daddy<strong>

_September 1st _

_Dear Mr. & Mrs. Kirstein,_

_I am writing to you today, not to curse or to pick a fight or even to talk about the past. No, this is quite the contrary, because I will soon be telling you about the future. Well, before I get on with writing any of that I'm going to assume that you are still reading. Who knows what'll happen to this letter. The two of you could throw it in that large fireplace in the dining room, or this could get lost in the mail, hell, I may not even send it away for eyes to peep at. But let's put all of that off to the side and assume that you are still reading this, and if you are then I'm going to start at the beginning... which isn't really in the future anymore, I guess._

_My name is Jean Kirstein. I'm in my twenties and I'm gay. That makes me the family disappointment. I worked at a café last summer to get some money when I met the man of my dreams, Marco Bodt. Who, for the record is also gay, though his family is still there for him. Unlike some parents I know of. _

_That was rude... sorry. No actually, I'm not sorry, but anyway on about Marco. He's a sweet guy who I basically fell in love with instantly and we've been dating for the past year now by some miracle. I can't quite explain with words how much I love Marco, but the very thought of him warms my heart and makes me smile. He's beautiful with his freckles and dark eyes. Also, he is without a doubt one of the strongest men I know. He has never let his disability get in the way of what he stands for, nor is he willing to be a charity-case for assholes like you, Mr and Mrs. Marco has spoken to me in ways I can't describe and he's never needed a set of vocal cords to do so. This is the reason why I want to marry him._

_Now we're into the future. Marriage. _

_No, I haven't popped any questions anywhere yet, but I do have a ring. It's silver and engraved and I know for a fact at this point that he will be saying yes. That brings me to my next point: you're not invited to the ceremony, or the after party for that matter. Don't be expecting and invitation and don't bother sending us wedding gifts. We are happy as we are without the vile presence of you around. It's not like either of you would bother coming anyway. I mean, you're probably still in a happy little world were 'Jean the Homosexual Son' is a straight man with a wife, three kids and another one on the way. Reality check: That's just a stupid assed fantasy._

_Wow, now that was some venting, sometimes my pen just flows with all these bitter pent up emotions. Anyway, you both get the point, hopefully._

_New York is a gay marriage accepting state and I'm taking advantage of that. Whether or not you give this marriage your blessing or whatnot I don't care because for once I'm happy. I am really and truly overjoyed. I don't know if you ever noticed it while I still lived at home, but I wasn't happy in any way, shape or form. I was sad so often and afraid even more because of you both. All that homophobia made me hide away for so many months and you barely even noticed, if at all. It's not like any of that matters anymore because I have the best support system I could ask for, and yes most of them are what you would call 'faggots' as well. And like I said, Marco is the one. He's my home. He makes me feel welcome in places where I thought I'd never belong._

_I could go on about this forever, seriously I could. Just writing this letter is opening up many old wounds that were caused by (guess who) you. Though thinking back on everything bad that ever happened to me, I have to say it was worth it if I got to meet a man like him in the end. Love comes in all shapes and sizes and my love for Marco is no different than the love you have for each other, mother and father. Actually, yes, our love is different because it sure as hell isn't as forced for publicity as yours is. _

_I did it again. Venting, however I still make no apologies. _

_Anyway, now that you're caught up with my life, I'm afraid I'm going to have to say goodbye. When I think about it though, I am actually happy to be saying such a thing. This is really and truly the final farewell. Now that I have Marco I'm not alone anymore. I have a job and I'm getting ready to be done with college soon. You know just about everything that is going to happen in the near future and it simply doesn't include let downs like you lot. I believe everything will be better for everyone if we just cut all the strings we have now and be done with one another. I know you'd be happy with that and so am I, so that's it. This is where the story ends. For me though, this is a beginning. The beginning, if you will. _

_Farewell to hiding. Farewell to homophobia. Farewell to the acid personalities you both possess. Farewell to pretending. Farewell to secrets and farewell to us. _

_Fuck it all. Every single moment of our togetherness._

_Your Ex-Son _

_Jean K_

I slapped my pen down onto the table before I neatly folded up my letter and set it in a desk drawer for safe keeping. I was still debating in my head if I wanted to mail this letter yet or not.

_'Enough of them and all these emotions,'_ I thought stroking my hand over the velvet box in my pocket. _'It's time to get some answers.'_


	35. Thirty-Five: A Question To Be Answered

_T__he __second last chapter of I'll Write if You'll listen. It's later than late due to what school felt like throwing in my face but I can promise it's worth it because I think you've all been waiting for this._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, people or places used. I just own the writing._

_Enjoy._

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><p><strong>Thirty-Five: A Question To Be Answered<strong>

_Breathe... breathe... breathe! Goddammit Kirstein breathing is a basic human need, DO IT._ I did as I told myself, exhaling before taking more air into my needy lungs. The action was supposed to be calming, though it wasn't really. _Good, breathing is good. I won't asphyxiate now I suppose and that's always helpful for survival. Now I need to calm the hell down. Okay..._

To fill in some obvious gaps I should state that I was currently pacing around my kitchen working myself up over my failed attempts to propose to Marco. I had tried no less than two times already. First attempt was with our group of friends; I panicked at the the sheer amount of people and backed out. The second time was just after sex one night. Most of my body was like '_hell yeah_!' but my brain was like '_hell no_!'. In the end I didn't think it was the right time and chose to go to sleep.

Thinking about this seriously though, who would have guessed this was so hard? Like, I knew he'd say yes and I knew that he loved me but it was still fucking nerve wracking. We had spoken seriously about marriage before and we were both rearing and ready to go. Somethings are truly easier said than done and I guess this is one of them. I couldn't make myself do it, yet at the same time I absolutely had to do it to make things 'official' between us. I was completely conflicted. Ready but still cripplingly scared.

A presence in the kitchen stirred me from my mess of thoughts. It was Marco. I mean who else would it be when the very person I was panicking about was him.

**What's up? Better yet, what's with the pacing? **He asked, crossing his arms over his chest. **You'll wear a whole in the floor if you keep going like that.**

"Nothing," I lied, my voice cracking as I did so. I halted my pacing as well, putting my hands on my hips to look natural as possible.

**You'll crack under the pressure if you're lying to me. Not to be rude, but I think you are.** He said simply tapping his foot.

I paused, mulling over millions of jumbled thoughts in my brain. _Not now! Right now! You love him, don't you? Do it! Ask him! Panic! Don't ask- ask- ask- ask him._

"You know me too well," I muttered under my breath, crumbling just as he said I would.

"Look, you'll probably guess what this is about half way through my speech, but bear with me, alright, baby? Okay? Okay. I was pacing and also thinking because I want to ask you something. Sadly I'm a chicken-shit and I've been avoiding it, but you know what? It's about time I got an answer. So, let's talk about us. We met by chance and I thought you were cute so I jumped in head first and here I am now. I devoted my heart to you in that first week and I knew how perfect you were the night I burnt my hand making you tea. A week had barely gone by at this point, but I felt something between us. A year or so later and now we've danced and we've kissed and you've fucked me until I can't even walk anymore. That wasn't romantic, sorry." I stopped for a split-second to breathe.

"Anyway, you get what I'm getting at. We've built blanket forts and snuggled and you've made me feel so good during times when I was so lost. You make me feel safe. Not to mention that you're smoking hot yet adorable to the max at the same time. You see, you're perfect in my eyes. I don't care what flaws you might have, because they don't matter to me and I accept them. You're stronger than anybody, mentally if not physically. Now, I didn't ask you're father if this is okay, so I hope he'll forgive me when I ask you this."

I bent down on whatever knee was convenient and pulled out the velvet box that had been weighing me down for the last month or so. Fuck fancy restaurants and big proposals, here I was in the kitchen and there Marco was still in his pajamas.

"Will you marry me? Marco Bodt you'd better say yes."

Tears pricked the corners of my eyes before they pricked the corners of his. I got to my feet and held him as we both sobbed into the others shoulder. I had told myself I wouldn't cry and to be honest I wasn't expecting him to cry either. Here we both were though.

Marco signed the word _'yes'_ repeatedly against my chest. **Yes. Yes. Yes.** If I hadn't been crying already I definitely would have been at this point. I was completely overjoyed to the point of shivering with anxious excitement. I had quite literally gone numb with excitement. He'd said what I'd expected, but I still couldn't believe it. The next step for us was just around the corner. God, the planning would be hell, but our wedding day though... oh what a day it will be.

I sighed feeling as if a giant weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

"We basically already had an agreement to get married. So why are we both crying?" I wondered aloud against his ear after finally ripping myself out of my own thoughts.

He shrugged, moving to hold me at arms length. _God, how was he still attractive after crying?_ I thought.

**Are you gonna give me the ring?**

"Nah," I whispered, leaning in to peck his lips softly whilst I slipped the band onto his finger. It fit him perfectly and even though it wasn't flashy it was the type of ring that would draw people's eyes toward it.

**It's pretty.** He said absently, twisting it around his finger. That was a quirk I bet would stay for years to come.

"Like you," I replied, winking at him.

I was expecting a slap on the shoulder, but instead we kissed again and I could feel his lips curve upwards into a smile. **Just like you as well, Jean Kirstein. Just like you**.


	36. Thirty-Six: Road To You

**Thirty-Six: Road to You**

The sky was gray and overcast, it looked like it may rain but it also appeared that the sun was trying it's hardest to stab it's way through the clouds. However, the weather didn't matter to two men on this day. In fact, nothing mattered to them, except for each other and that's the way it was supposed to be.

The only thing the Jean could register in his mind was the man standing in front of him. Let it be known it was the same in Marco's case. They both knew that words were being spoken loudly by the priest who was to the side of them, but it was their special day and they weren't going to waste it by not mooning over one another.

"Mr. Kirstein, I believe you have prepared your own vows."

He nodded, before sucking in a large breath. "Here it goes. Marco, words can't describe how flawless you are, they really can't, so I'm going to make this short and sweet. Today I'm pledging myself to you forever and I will never, ever, go back on that. I'm here for you today and I'll be damned if I'm not here for you within a year. I'm going to be the one to wipe away every tear you shed, be it from laughter or sorrow. It's you and me until the end of the line, baby. I love you."

Tears glistened in the grooms eyes as all attention was flipped over to Marco. "Mr. Bodt, your vows."

His hands shook as he signed. He also tried his hardest to mouth along with what he was saying.** Jean. We've laughed and sobbed and worked our way through these past two years together and I have never been happier in my life. I could say that I'm vowing to dedicate my all to you, but I've already done that, so today what I'm going to say is that I love you. I love you as a best friend, as a boyfriend, and soon I will love you as a husband. You took the words right out of my hands when you said that if was you and I until the end of the line.**

"The rings please..."

The rest of the ceremony from the grooms perspective was a blur. Rings were placed on both their fingers, documents were signed, smiles were etched on both their faces and when it came time for them to do that traditional but cliché end of wedding kiss they bumped noses on their first attempt. Their second was better, since they actually reached each others lips which sprung cheers from everyone in the audience (and yes, by whole audience that does mean Annie AND Levi).

"Let's get a hell yeah for the newlywed Kirstein-Bodt's!" Sasha and Eren shouted from the front row, starting another round of applause.

Jean took this opportunity to throw his and Marco's intertwined hands in the air. The tips of his ears had turned pink to no ones surprise, but his smile was wide and proud as ever.

"Hell yeah!" He yelled, gripping Marco's hand tighter as he ran down the isle of the church at full speed out into the now pouring rain. He took his husbands face into both his hands and kissed him forcefully as the elements beat down on them.

"It's just you and me now baby."

* * *

><p>It wasn't until later on that night that Marco and Jean got a moment to themselves without someone fussing over them and that was during their first dance.<p>

Well, they did get a few seconds alone like bathroom breaks or when Marco mushed a whole piece of wedding cake onto Jean's thoroughly unimpressed face, but even then they weren't really alone to one another until they were on the dance floor wrapped around the other.

_'I was born a fool on the run_

_I've broken hearts and lost at love_

_There's not one thing I would change or undo_

_'Cause all my life's been a road to you'_

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Jean whispered into Marco's ear as he spun him around. He subtly nodded in agreement, knowing full well that he couldn't discreetly start signing during their first dance.

"Would you have ever imagined we'd end up dancing to this? Just like on that night in the café!" He dipped his partner, not really wanting a reply since he already knew the answer.

"I guess this song really followed us around hasn't it? That means that I can sing it as loudly as I want to, right?"

They continued to dance and to Marco's relief Jean didn't sing his heart out whilst doing so. He hummed along quietly for the most part, except for the few times he apologized for stepping on his partners toes.

And just like that their first dance was over. Marco received a kiss on the forehead before he (and his husband) where swept up into a crowd of mostly rowdy and slightly intoxicated twenty-something year olds. Neither of them were complaining too much at this, but like it was said earlier, a little time together wouldn't of hurt too much.

Throughout the night the couple caught glimpses of each other in between their greedy friends and relatives. At one point Jean was inches away from grabbing Marco's waist to pull him into a slow dance when Krista leaned up on her tip toes (as a side note she_ was _wearing heels) and kissed him on the cheek.

"Forgive me Jean, but I didn't get a dance with ether one of the grooms yet." With that Krista slipped into place and began to shuffle around to the music with Marco.

Jean barely got a moment to register that Marco had been stolen away from him before Ymir and Sasha slipped into place on either side of him.

"You did it, Johnny-Boy," Ymir started

"And we're really proud of that fact." Sasha concluded.

"Huh?"

The two girls shrugged, the shorter of the two talking first this time. "That night when we were all sixteen, you nearly threw up just trying to come out to us and here you are some odd years later on your wedding day, you've come pretty far from the boy you once where and we wanted you to know."

"Well, you have to realize I wouldn't be here if not for you two."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Ymir suggested, "congrats, anyway."

"Yes congratulations. I hope you like the gift from Connie and me." Sasha piped in, hitting his shoulder in an affectionate way. "But for real, Jean, we are proud of who you've become."

* * *

><p>The night continued on and slowly but surely people began to trickle back to their homeshotels. At the end of the night five people other than the grooms remained: Caleb Bodt, Ymir, Sasha, Eren and Krista. All of them stood in a semi-circle around the dance floor watching Jean and Marco have their last dance together.

It was getting late, so both men sort of lazily clung to the other as they padded from foot to foot. Neither man had shoes on anymore, nor did Jean still have his suit jacket or tie.

Jean giggled, "It's past twelve. Happy second day of marriage." He announced this all official-like.

Eren cheered from the sidelines which made Marco giggle as well.** I still remember when we first met like it was yesterday.**

"That makes two of us." He cleared his throat. "_Good morning. I apologize for the inconvenience, I thought I had a notepad with me..._ that's what you wrote, right?"

Marco gazed into Jean's eyes with his large brown ones. He leaned in for a lingering kiss.** Of course it was. I'm glad you remembered.**

They shared another loving kiss as the duo of husbands that they now were.

* * *

><p>When Jean Kirstein was twenty years old he had a summer job in a little café in downtown Trost. It wasn't a bad job because he met the man of his dreams there. He didn't know anything back then, but now that man was his husband. Marco Kirstein-Bodt.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Alternately titled Marco's Tawny Haired Soldier or The End.<em>

_Song Mentioned: Road to You- Five for Fighting_

_So, hello everyone. It's official that you have read the final chapter of I'll Write If You'll Listen. You don't understand how much it pains me to write a sentence like that after over a year of working on this project, which as I've stated before was supposed to be a ONESHOT. Yeah, pretty crazy, right? Anyway, as promised this chapter was written in the third person just as chapter one was back in the day._

_Now, before I get into any of my thank yous (there will be a lot) I'd like to talk about the future of this story. I'm not saying that I'm willing to write another thirty-six chapter fanfic, but I wouldn't mind writing a three to five chapter story about Jean and Marco's lives after the events of this story. It's just an idea, but if you all as readers would like to see that than please drop me a message saying so, I'm always open to your suggestions._

_Okay. It's time for the acknowledgements now. Thank you to everyone who has ever left a comment/kudos/review or to anyone who has followed this story. Thank you to those who have been here since chapter one and thank you to those who have been here since the middle and thank you to those of you who just found this story today. Also, thank you to anyone who read one chapter of this story and than never bothered to read another (I think you're missing out, but I'm biased here). Thank you to my brother for reading this story and telling me when I misused/misspelled a word. The biggest of thank yous goes out to I-am-your-absolute-princess (I won't use your real name unless I receive permission to) for the translation of my whole story in her native language, French (please check her version out and tell her nice things you can read en français). Now I know I must be forgetting someone in here so if I didn't mention you by name or by username this thank you is for you: thank you!_

_So I think that's about all I can say for right now other than that I don't own any of the characters, people, places or songs used. I just own the writing. But hopefully you already knew that. Just a reminder that the future of this AU and what it could now offer is up to you all. Thank you, everyone, once again and as always, I hope you enjoyed._

_-Sarah_


End file.
